128 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
duty. He succeeded on another case at Martinique, 
where the patient was bitten by a serpent, reported to be 
as venomous and fatal as that of St. Lucia. 
Mr. Boag, who has had some experience in the bites of 
the Cobra de Capello, recommends a weak solution of the 
nitrate of silver to be assiduously applied to the part, and 
small doses of it to he given internally. Should, however, 
future experience decide upon the inefhcacy of all these 
remedies; in that case, the only security against the con- 
sequences of wounds so alarming, (if security is to be ob- 
tained,) would be a very deep extirpation of the surround- 
ing parts, or the rapid extinction of the vital principle in 
them by the most active caustics. — Lempriet'e’s Nat. Hist. 
INFLUENCE OF MAN IN DOMESTICATING 
WILD ANIMALS. 
It has been well observed by M. F. Cuvier and M. 
Dureau de la Malle, that unless some animals had mani- 
fested in a wild state an aptitude to second the efforts of 
man, their domestication would never have been attempted. 
If they had all resembled the wolf, the fox, and the 
hyaena, the patience of the experimentalist would have 
been exhausted by innumerable failures before he at last 
succeeded in obtaining some imperfect results; so, if the 
first advantages derived from the cultivation of plants had 
been elicited by as tedious and costly a process as that by 
which we now make some slight additional improvement 
in certain races, we should have remained to this day in 
ignorance of the greater number of their useful qualities. 
It is undoubtedly true, that many new habits and quali- 
ties have not only been acquired in recent times by certain 
races of dogs, but have been transmitted to their offspring. 
But in these cases it will be observed, that the new pecu- 
liarities have an intimate relation to the habits of the ani- 
mal in a wild state, and therefore do not attest any ten- 
dency to departure to an indefinite extent from the original 
type of the species. A race of dogs employed for hunting 
deer in the platform of Santa Fe, in Mexico, affords a 
beautiful illustration of a new hereditary instinct. The 
mode of attack, observes M. Roulin, which they employ, 
consists in seizing the animal by the belly and overturn- 
ing it by a sudden effort, taking advantage of the moment 
when the body of the deer rests only upon the fore-legs. 
The weight of the animal thus thrown over, is often six 
times that of its antagonist. The dog of pure breed inhe- 
rits a disposition to this kind of chase, and never attacks a 
deer from before while running. Even should the latter, 
not perceiving him, come directly upon him, the dog steps 
aside and makes his assault on the flank, whereas other 
hunting dogs, though of superior strength and general 
sagacity, which are brought from Europe, are destitute of 
this instinct. For want of similar precautions, they are 
often killed by the deer on the spot, the vertebrae of their 
neck being dislocated by the violence of the shock. 
A new instinct also has become hereditary in a mongrel 
race of dogs employed by the inhabitants of the banks of 
the Magdalena, almost exclusively in hunting the white- 
lipped pecari. The address of these dogs consists in re- 
straining their ardour, and attaching themselves to no 
animal in particular, but keeping the whole herd in check. 
Now, among these dogs some are found, which, the very 
first time they are taken to the woods, are acquainted with 
this mode of attack; whereas, a dog of another breed starts 
forward at once, is surrounded by the pecari, and what- 
ever may be his strength is destroyed in a moment. 
Some of our countrymen, engaged of late in conducting 
the principal mining association in Mexico, carried out 
with them some English greyhounds of the best breed, to 
hunt the hares which abound in that country. The great 
platform which is the scene of sport is at an elevation of 
about nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the 
mercury in the barometer stands habitually at the height 
of about nineteen inches. It was found that the greyhounds 
could not support the fatigues of a long chase in this atte- 
nuated atmosphere, and before they could come up with 
their prey, they lay down gasping for breath; but these 
same animals have produced whelps which have grown up, 
and are not in the least degree incommoded by the want 
of density in the air, but run down the hares with as 
much ease as the fleetest of their race. 
The fixed and deliberate stand of the pointer has with 
propriety been regarded as a mere modification of a habit, 
which may have been useful to a wild race accustomed to 
wind game, and steal upon it by surprise, first pausing for 
an instant in order to spring with unerring aim. The 
faculty of the Retriever, however, may justly be regarded 
as more inexplicable and less easily referrible to the in- 
stinctive passions of the species. M. Majendie, says a 
French writer in a recently published memoir, having 
learnt that there was a race of dogs in England, which 
stopped and brought back game of their own accord, pro- 
cured a pair, and having obtained a whelp from them, kept 
it constantly under his eyes, until he had an opportunity 
of assuring himself that, without having received any in- 
struction, and on the very first day that it was carried to 
the chase, it brought back game with as much steadiness 
as dogs which had been schooled into the same manoeuvre 
by means of the whip and collar. 
