146 COMPARISON OF THE BONES BELONGING TO 



domestic hog. He considers that all the bones of this variety 

 from Moosseedorf belonged to wild individuals, while of 

 those from Nidau, Robenhausen, Wauwyl, and Concise, some 

 bear, in his opinion, evidences of domestication. It has been 

 supposed by some naturalists that this variety was founded 

 only on female specimens, but in his last work Prof. Riiti- 

 meyer combats this opinion at some length, and gives copious 

 descriptions and measurements of the different parts. He also 

 points out numerous sexual differences in the S. palustris, of 

 the same nature, but not so well marked, as those of the wild 

 boar. Relying also on its well-defined geographical and 

 historical range, he denies that it can be considered as a 

 cross between the wild boar and domestic hog, or that the 

 differences which separate it from the former can be looked 

 upon as mere individual peculiarities. He considers, in- 

 deed, that as a wild animal it became extinct at a very 

 early period, though the tame swine of India, which 

 agree closely with this race, may perhaps have descended 

 from it. 



Our domestic hog first makes its appearance in the later 

 Pile works, as, for instance, at Concise. Prof. Rutimeyer does 

 not, however, believe that it was tamed by the inhabitants 

 of Switzerland, but is rather disposed to look upon it as 

 having been introduced during the Bronze age, and the more 

 so, as he also finds at Concise traces of an ox (B. trochoceros) 

 which does not occur in the earlier Pileworks. 



In endeavouring to ascertain whether any given bones 

 belonged to a wild or domesticated animal, we must be 

 guided by the following considerations : the number of in- 

 dividuals represented ; the relative proportions of young 

 and old ; the absence or presence of very old individuals, 

 at least in the case of species that served for food ; the traces 

 of long, though indirect, selection, in diminishing the size of 

 any natural weapons which might be injurious to man ; the 



