148 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



The Buffalo— Animah under Domestiecdion. 



"The bison and the aurochs," says Buffon, "differ 

 only in unessential characteristics, and are, by con- 

 sequence, of the same species as our domestic cattle, 

 so that I believe all the pretended species of the ox, 

 whether ancient or modern, may be reduced to three 

 — the bull, the buffalo, and the bubalus. 



" The case of animals under domestication is in many 

 respects different from that of wild ones ; they vary much 

 more in disposition, size and shape, especially as regards 

 the exterior parts of their bodies : the effects of climate, 

 so powerful throughout nature, act with far greater 

 effect upon captive animals than upon wild ones. Food 

 prepared by man, and often ill chosen, combined with 

 the inclemency of an uncongenial climate — these even- 

 tuate in modifications sufficiently profound to become 

 constant and hereditary in successive generations. I 

 do not pretend to say that this general cause of 

 modification is so powerful as to change radically the 

 nature of beings which have had their impress stamped 

 upon them in that surest of moulds — heredity ; but it 

 nevertheless changes them in not a few respects; it 

 masks and transforms their outward appearance; it 

 suppresses some of their parts, and gives them new 

 ones ; it paints them with various colours, and hy its 

 action on hodily habits influences also their natv/res, 

 Instincts, and most inward qualities" (and what is 

 this but " radically changing their nature " ?). " The 

 modification of but a single part, moreover, in a whole 

 as perfect as an animal body, will necessitate a correla- 



