THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 83 



which was evidently at the bottom of his thoughts, and which 

 he had for a long time resolved in a monogenist sense. 



But domestic animals have quite special conditions, which 

 do not allow the assimilation of these varieties with those 

 which have been simply produced by natural forces. Cuvier* 

 had already pointed out this difference, and rejected all assimi- 

 lation between them and free animals. Without taking too 

 much account of the reasons "which impelled him towards such 

 opinions, we believe that upon this point, at least, he was en- 

 tirely in the right ; as to the rest, Isidore Greoffroy himself 

 furnishes us with weapons against his own theories. fc Since 

 nature, left to herself," he says, " does not give us witnesses 

 of the great changes in the conditions of existence, it is clear 

 that there only remains one means of seeing such changes, 

 and of deducing therefrom the effects upon organisation, it 

 is to force nature to do what she would not do voluntarily ."t 

 All the condemnation of this system of Isidore Geoffroy is 

 contained, in our opinion, in these last words. As for our- 

 selves, we reject, in the most absolute and formal manner, the 

 connexion which some have desired to make between man and 

 the domestic animals. Man is a sociable animal, like many 

 others ; but he only becomes exceptionally a domestic animal 

 when he falls into slavery. The domestic animal is a being 

 drawn from the normal state, and constrained by man. He is 

 constrained by nature to obey the influence of his master alone, 

 an influence infinitely variable. It resembles itself no longer ; 

 the habit of obedience does not even leave it its will ; it ceases 

 to be a personality, and becomes a mere machine, producing 

 for the benefit of another person. 



Domesticity has certain characteristics of degeneracy ; the 

 animal loses its activity, it becomes less eager, and assimilates 

 itself more ; it becomes almost incapable of subsisting alone ; 

 it vegetates ; together with its personality it has lost this re- 

 sistence to the ambient medium, which is the necessary charac- 

 teristic of the species, the condition of the nisus formativus ; 



* Recherches sur les Ossements Fossiles, 4to, vol. i, p. 59, 1831. 

 f Histoire Naturelle Generate, vol. iii, p. 389. 



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