MISCELLANEA. 
119 
For ten years this prolific mother produced two litters in the 
year of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a litter ; 
but as there were nearly double the number of pigs to that of teats, 
many died. 
From long experience this female was grown very sagacious 
and artful. When she found occasion to communicate with a boar, 
she used to open all the intervening gates, and march by herself 
up to a distant farm where one was kept, and, whpn her purpose 
was served, would return by the same means. 
At the age of about fifteen, her litters began to be reduced to 
four or five. 
At a moderate computation, she was allowed to have been the 
fruitful parent of two hundred pigs; a prodigious instance of 
fecundity in so large a quadruped. 
Cork Cuvierian Society. 
Ihe Mayor in the Chair. 
DOCTOR Porter read an Essay, the first of an intended series, on 
the origin of domestic animals, commencing with the dog. He 
combatted the opinion of Hunter, Bell, and others, that all dogs are 
descended from the wolf. Granting the perfect similitude of in- 
ternal organization and the very close general resemblance in ex- 
ternal form, together with identity of habits in many respects, it 
was argued that there is a very remarkable dissimilarity in the 
conical shape of the face, with the surpassing breadth at the ears. 
The oblique position of the eyes of the wolf is allowed by all to be 
a striking point of difference. Professor Bell attempts to get over 
this, by attributing the upright position of the eyes of the dog to 
the habit, transmitted through many generations, of following his 
master and obeying his voice. This has been objected to, on the 
ground that following a master is not more likely to give an 
upright position to the eyes than pursuing their prey, as is usual 
with wolves. The Essay denied that the occasional intermixture 
which has occurred between these animals is a proof of specific 
identity; for intermixtures, similar in all facts and consequences, 
take place between dogs and foxes, likewise with jackals, both 
confessedly different species. Several instinctive habits of the 
wolf were chiefly relied on as being sufficient distinction. The 
most interesting is the attention paid by the male wolf to his off- 
spring, which he feeds on half-digested food that he disgorges for 
the purpose. This is totally different from any observed habit of 
dogs. The Essay shewed that, from the earliest periods, various 
regions have been infested by wild dogs, different from the wolf, 
and from one another (some of which hold their ground to this 
