52 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
as ever, and with as little probability of arriving at a 
satisfactory conclusion. In the investigation of this 
difficult subject, however, as in the search after the 
philosopher's stone, many curious facts have been 
brought to light, which would otherwise in all proba- 
bility have remained buried in obscurity ; and the 
causes which are continually operating to produce a 
gradual change of character, both in outward form and 
in intellectual capacity, among the brute creation, have 
received considerable elucidation. It is thus that theo- 
ries, however erroneous in themselves, are frequently 
made subservient to the advancement of science, by 
the important facts which are incidentally developed 
by their authors in the ardour of their zeal for the 
establishment of a favourite hypothesis. 
It is by no means our intention to enter upon the 
discussion of so extensive a question. But while we 
purposely abstain from inquiring what was the original 
Dog, before he was reclaimed (if such a period ever 
existed) to the service of man, we cannot shut our eyes 
to the fact that in the specimens now before us we 
have him in that condition in which he may be sup- 
posed to approach most nearly to a state of nature, as 
the companion of a race of savages, the lowest in the 
scale of intellect that have been met with in the world. 
From the observation of the characters, physical and 
moral, which he presents in this first stage of culti- 
vation, some idea may perhaps be deduced of what a 
Dog would be without any cultivation whatever ; but 
it should always be borne in mind that even amongst 
the most savage nations the Dogs are as distinct in 
character as the tribes they serve, and that their degree 
of intellectual developement frequently outstrips that 
of the masters who hold them in subjection. 
The Australian Dog was observed, but scarcely re- 
