THE MAMMALIA— MAN AND BEASTS. 



65 



of domestication. This discrepancy between the original colours of the Horse in the 

 Old and New Continents is not, however, without an analogous instance. The Ox, on 

 becomino- wild in South America, appears, from the observations of M. Roulin, to 

 have reverted to a chestnut brown, while in Britain we know that the wild breed of 

 the Ox, now exterminated, was entirely white, excepting a sHght tinge of red on the 

 ear and a black muzzle. Further, we find that the domestic animals on becoming 

 wild reacquire other properties corresponding to their independent mode of life. The 

 ears of the Hog are diminished, and his skull is enlarged ; the speed and agility of 

 the Horse are increased ; the courage of the Ass reappears especially among the 

 Stallions ; and the petulance of the Goat seems to be augmented with the ease and 

 agility of his movements. AVe also find that the permanent fiecretion of milk in the 

 Cow and She- Goat is an acquired property of domestication. In conducting these 

 inquiries, it often becomes difficult to distinguish those changes which are entirely at- 

 tributable to the loss of properties formerly acquired by domestication, from those new 

 changes induced by climate, food, and other physical conditions under which the 

 animals are placed. It is to some accidental influence of this kind, that we must 

 ascribe the difference in the primitive hues of the Horse and Ox, which in America 

 arc chestnut bay and chestnut brown ; while in the Old Continent white is the original 

 colour. Yet, after making due allowance for the joint or separate influence of food 

 and cUmate, and after comparing the several races with each other, and with the 

 circumstances in which they are placed, we are compelled to admit the general prin- 

 ciple, that habits of independence occasion the wild races to revert continually to- 

 wards a primitive form and colour, which can be no other than those from which 

 they have diverged in the course of ages. 



In the second place, upon examining the writings and monuments of antiquity, we 

 find that all our domestic animals have existed throughout Europe in the wild state. 

 Most of them have undergone modifications dependent on the antiquity of their 

 domestication. This progress can be traced in the Horse which has undergone 

 perceptible changes during the interval of seventeen centuries from the age of Pliny 

 to the present time. The pace of the pas-releve has been acquired by our Horses 

 gince the time of the Romans, and this quaUty is now transmitted to posterity. We 

 further perceive that while the ancients were acquainted with only four varieties of 

 the Horse, and but few of the Dog, the variations of these animals at the present day 

 are absolutely innumerable. The influence of domestication in developing the milder 

 and more useful qualities of the Horse, the Ox, and the Dog, as well as in perfecting 

 their intelligence, may be clearly traced. There also exists a tendency to break down 

 the original distinctions between the carnivorous and herbivorous animals, by inducing 

 a kind of omnivorous habit, especially when these animals are reduced to extremities. 

 The dense fleece of the Sheep and the barking of the Dog have been considered to 

 be the acquired results of Domestication. Hereafter we shall investigate the grounds 

 upon which these opinions seem chiefly to repose. 



Every where we are struck with that general tendency of the Mammalia, and in- 

 deed of all living beings, to preserve the forms impressed upon them at the moment of 

 their creation. As soon as the industry of the Horticulturist, or the skilful precavi- 

 tions of the Grazier and Veterinarian, are suspended, both Plants and Animals alike 

 feel the influence of this atavism, which leads them to revert to the forms of their 

 remotest ancestors. The vegetable resumes its rustic garb, or the bitter and use- 

 less secretions of its wild condition, the animal loses some of the most important and 

 valuable of its properties. Both alike revert to a uniform type in their external and 

 internal characters. Animated beings are soon stripped of those rich attributes 

 which they had derived from the cultivation of the soil, or from civilization, the abun- 

 dance of nutritious food, a careful shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, or their 

 habits of intercourse with the superior genius of Man, but above all, from his care in 

 refnilatin"- their unions among themselves. A bountiful Nature is ever ready to sub- 

 stitute qualities, which bear relation only to the wants of the animal, and the part it 

 should perform on the great stage of created existence, for those other properties, 

 which doubtless were imparted only for the purpose of administering to the wants and 

 necessities of Man. 



GENERAL KEVIEW OF THE MAMMALIA CONTINUED. 



Recapitulation — Relations which the dimensions of the Mammalia bear to the pecu- 

 liarities of their organization, and the stations they are designed to occupy — Oc- 

 casional Difference of Size between the Sexes. 



THA.T original types have been impressed upon species at the moment of their creation, 

 seems then to be one of the most general and important laws of Animated Nature. 

 If the preceding observations have any force, the conclusions in which Lamarck and 

 other experienced Naturalists have inferred the perpetual variation of species, and 

 the indefinite extent of their modifications, during the course of ages, become wholly 

 inadmissible. Great as the variations of Animals and Plants may appear upon a 

 superficial consideration, they seem, upon a more cautious investigation, to be in reahty 

 confined within certain very narrow and well defined limits. The care of the Horti- 

 culturist can modify the secretions of a plant, and the relative magnitude of its parts; 

 ho can obtain an extraordinary development of one part, at the expense of another ; 

 he can transform the stamens into petals, and occasion a single flower to become 

 double ; he can impart a dehcious flavor to the fruit ; or lead to the development of 

 fleshy and tuberculous roots by suppressing the branches, shortening the stalks, or 

 diminishing the flowers. Availing himself of a corresponding law of Nature, the 

 Grazier can modify the general functions of Nutrition and Generation among Animals. 

 Among the Ruminantia, the cares of Man may lead to the alteration of particular 

 secretions ; their milk may be rendered permanent, or their hair fine and silky. 

 By regulating the temperature to which they are exposed, or the quality of their 

 food, by the annihilation of other organic functions, Man can not only succeed in 

 modifying individuals, but Nature lightens the labours of his posterity, in transmitting 

 their acquired properties to future generations. But on abandoning these artificial 

 products to their own mutual action, the original equihbrium of their functions re- 

 17 



stores itself. The balance of animal forces either becomes rectified in the individuals, 

 or their posterity undergo a course of regeneration in resuming their original habits, or 

 perhaps in uniting with the wild individuals of their own species. 



From this invincible tendency of each species to resume its original form, we are 

 led to regard all the variations of Animals and Plants but as the vibrations of a 

 pendulum, which continues to oscillate around a fixed and determinate axis. The 

 original type is continued by generation, according to constant laws, and the in- 

 numerable disturbing causes to which it is exposed, whether internal or external, 

 are insutEcient to subvert this harmony of parts. The inherent disposition of each 

 specific type reappears after all our attempts to annihilate it, and it is in Natural 

 History as in Morals, 



Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret. 



Nature further prevents all permanent confusion of species by the instinctive aversion 

 of allied animals. Even when Hybrid or adulterous unions do arise, the Mules are 

 usually sterile, and these Mongrel products appear to stand in relation to surround- 

 ing beings as something unnatural and monstrous. 



The tendency of a species to produce the same form on the one hand, and the 

 causes of deviation on the other, compose two opposite and counter-balancing forces, 

 by the mutual reaction of which each separate force becomes modified, and from their 

 combined action there thence proceed eflFects which may be regarded as the resultant 

 of the two forces. 



The pecuUarities of a race are the more decidedly marked according as it is more 

 ancient. Among the domestic animals, there can be no doubt that a great number of 

 these individuals belong to races whose origin dates back from a very remote period 

 of antiquity. Those races, on the contrary, which are known to be of more recent 

 origin, preserve their peculiarities with greater difficulty, and always tend to revert to 

 the forms of those more ancient types, to the crossing or modification of which they 

 owe their own existence. Instances of this law occur daily under our eyes, and indeed 

 are matter of notoriety to gardeners and breeders of cattle. They are, however, 

 most perceptible in the Dog, where there often appears, from the crossing of races, a 

 new variety, which, however, is found to possess a short and fleeting existence, the 

 common lot of all types of modern origin. These considerations would lead us to 

 assign a very high antiquity to the period of the first appearance of the most per- 

 manent races. 



The attempts of some recent German and French philosophers to explain the 

 immense diversity of animals and plants upon Physiological principles, and without 

 an appeal to an original and specific creation, appear to us to be wholly unsatisfactory. 

 As well might they attempt to resolve by Mechanical principles how it happens that 

 one time-piece shows the day of the month, another only the hour of the day, while 

 a third will point the minutes and seconds, — differences which can only be explained 

 by the intention and design of the Horologian. 



Instead of speculating in these inaccessible regions, the Natural Historian endea- 

 vours to trace the relations of created beings with each other, and with the general 

 laws of inanimate Nature, rather than to indulge in conjecture upon the physical 

 causes of their diversity. 



All created beings must necessarily be formed in direct correspondence with each 

 other, and the places they are destined to inhabit. In the same manner, as particular 

 organs are adapted to particular purposes, so must the general dimensions of the 

 body correspond accurately with surrounding circumstances. We see the eye exhi- 

 bit different relations in respect to light, according as it is intended to see to a small 

 or remote distance, or through the medium of air or of water. The ear again is 

 organized relatively to the vibrations of the air, to melodious sounds, as in many 

 Birds ; the nose to odoriferous effluvia, to animal odours in the Carnassier, to 

 vegetable in the Herbivorous tribes ; the organs of mastication and suction to the 

 nature of the food ; the arms and means of defence for the preservation of each 

 species, and the destruction of its prey. 



It is evident, therefore, that if we can trace design and correspondence between 

 particular organs and functions, a certain general equilibrium of functions and organs 

 must also exist, and each species or original type must possess that general form, 

 dimensions, and duration, which will enable it to continue its existence for a Umited 

 time, and perform its part among created beings. 



On comparing all the Mammalia among themselves, we are at once struck with 

 the remarkable differences in their dimensions, which present a greater amount of 

 variation in these respects than perhaps in any other class of animals. The Minute 

 Shrew fSorex exHis) is the smallest of known Mammalia, and measures only one 

 eight hundredth part of the length of the Basque Whale (Balccna boopsj, while in 

 bulk it is only about one part in half a million. In other words, assuming the di- 

 mensions of the smallest species of the I\Iammalia = 1, then the length of the 

 largest animal of this class is = 800, and its bulk is = 500,000. 



This great disparity of size chiefly arises, it must be observed, between Mammalia 

 differing considerably from each other in their external organization. If we com- 

 pare together animals of the same order only, the discrepancy in their dimensions is 

 brought within much narrower limits. The si2e3 of these animals approximate still 

 more closely if we descend to tribes, families, or genera; and so invariably does Nature 

 preserve this relation between the bulk of an animal and its external characters, that 

 if we find two congenerous species, which present remarkable differences in size, we 

 may be almost certain that there will also be found important differences in some of 

 those organs which commonly serve to supply the generic characters. Among the 

 Quadrumana, for example, the Apes form a most natural family, and one in which 

 the general height remains tolerably constant. If we except the Orangs and the 

 Cynocephala, which are the largest, and the Ouistitis, whose size is much less than 

 the others, and which almost stand out as an isolated group from the remainino- 

 genera in respect to their external characters, we shall find that the remainder differ 

 but shghtly in their dimensions. Among all the Cynocephala, the length of their 

 head and body remains uniformly constant, being a little more than two feet. 

 Again, the Ouistitis compose a genus very numerous in species ; and yet, when con- 

 sidered by themselves, they present a result much more remarkable. On comparing 



