BUFFON— FULLER QUOTATIONS. l6l 



consequence of changed desires; but it is surprising 

 how nearly Buffon has approached the later and truer 

 theory, which may perhaps have been suggested to Dr. 

 Darwin by the following pregnant passage — as pregnant, 

 probably, to Buffon himself as to another : — 



" The camel is the animal which seems to me to have 

 felt the weight of slavery most profoundly. He is bom 

 with wens upon his back and callosities upon his knees 

 and chest ; these callosities are the unmistakable results 

 of rubbing, for they are full of pus and of corrupted 

 blood. The camel never walks without carrying a heavy 

 burden, and the pressure of this has hindered, for gene- 

 rations, the free extension and uniform growth of the 

 muscular parts of the back; whenever he reposes or 

 sleeps his driver compels him to do so upon his folded 

 legs, so that little by little this position becomes habitual 

 with him. All the weight of his body bears, during 

 several hours of the day continuously, upon his chest 

 and knees, so that the skin of these parts, pressed and 

 rubbed against the earth, loses its hair, becomes bruised, 

 hardened, and disorganized. 



" The llama, which like the camel passes its life 

 beneath burdens, and also reposes only by resting its 

 weight upon its chest, has similar callosities, which 

 again are perpetuated in successive generations. Ba- 

 boons, and pouched monkeys, whose ordinary position is 

 a sitting one, whether waking or sleeping, have cal- 

 losities under the region of the haunches, and this hard 

 skin has even become inseparable from the bone against 

 which it is being continually pressed by the weight of 

 the body ; in the case, however, of these animals the 



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