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DOMESTICITY ELIMINATES STEEILITY. 



313 



J 



growth. — Pallas has remarked that clomesticitj eliminates the 

 tendency to sterility which belongs to nearly allied species 

 in a state of nature. As bearing on this subject^ Mr. Darwin 

 observes that there are many animals which^ when tamed or 

 subjugated to man^ refuse to breed in captivity although 

 they enjoy perfect healthy as the tiger, for example, in India, 

 and parrots in Europe, and the elex3hant except when allowed, 



Assam 



may 



long fixed, as well as many of the conditions of existence in 

 a wild state, are interfered with. But those species which 

 more readily accommodate themselves to new circumstances 

 arising out of their association with man, and which can be 

 carried by him to all climates, exhibit the same plasticity of 

 character in reference to the reproductive organs. 



It cannot, however, be pretended that a satisfactory expla- 

 nation can be offered of the tendency of domestication to in- 

 crease the prolificness of animals and plants. In reference to 

 the opposite effect of a return to the wild state, the following* 

 fact is worthy of mention. About the year 1419 some rabbits 

 were introduced into the island of Porto Santo, where they 

 multiplied exceedingly, and have flourished ever since in a 

 feral state. In 



many 



marked race, which is smaller than the original parent stock. 



When 



fc3 



domes 



tic rabbits, isolation for many generations under peculiar 

 geographical conditions having apparently superinduced an 

 aversion to cross even with such nearly allied races. 



If two wild species, such as the wolf and the jackal, can by 



made 



must 



made 



in the theory that species have been specially endowed with 

 mutual sterility in order to keep them distinct. It is certainly 

 very strange that when domesticated races have been 

 to differ to such an extent that if wild they would have been 

 referred by naturalists to difPerent genera, there should still 

 be scarcely any well-attested examples even of an approach 



mon 



It is all the more 



