7 06 Domesticity in Animals. [December, 
would have contended with system, and planet with sun. 
But there is none of this. Far out in the confines of space 
we find the same regularity and completeness as in our own 
system, even these anomalous bodies, the variable stars, 
with their ever-changing brilliancy, being but the product of 
this action of motion upon matter. 
III. DOMESTICITY IN ANIMALS. 
S MONG the questions for which the naturalist is ex- 
pected to have a stock of answers neatly cut and 
dried, one of the most frequent relates to the domes- 
ticity of animals. Why, it is asked, has man succeeded in 
taming certain species and not others ? The querist is not 
always satisfied to be told that such animals as are likely to 
be useful to man have for the most part been brought to 
take their place in human civilisation, whilst those which 
were dangerous or useless have been left outside, and are 
treated as enemies. He may, on further reflection, ask why 
the aborigines of the western hemisphere, at the time of its 
first discovery by the Spaniards, seem to have had no 
domestic animals at all, whilst nations of the eastern con- 
tinent not further advanced in civilisation had enjoyed the 
services of beasts of burden from a date far anterior to the 
dawn of history. There is perhaps no feature in the insti- 
tutions of the ancient Mexican empire more startling than 
this : that the tasks which in the Old World fell to the lot 
of the ox, the horse, the ass, cr the camel, there devolved 
upon human beings. A peculiar caste of men, trained to the 
task and doubtless possessing hereditary powers of speed and 
indurance, carried intelligence between different parts of the 
empire. Another caste, the Tamemes of the early Spanish 
explorers and conquerors, bore merchandise upon their 
shoulders. 
The ancient Peruvians had one only domestic animal, the 
Llama, adapted by its habits and constitution merely to 
mountainous countries. 
The followers of Swainson seek to explain such anomalies 
in a somewhat peculiar manner. They argue that all 
