THE MAMMALIA— MAN AND BEASTS. 
65 
of domestication. This discrepancy between tho original colours of the Horse in the 
Old and Now Continents is not, howetcr, without an analogous instance. Tlic Ox, on 
becoming wild in South America, appears, from the observations of M. Roulin, to 
have reverted to a chestnut brown, while in Britain we know that tho wild breed of 
the Ox, now exterminated, was entirely white, excepting a slight tinge of red on the 
ear, and a black inuarlc. Further, we find that the domestic animals on becoming 
wild reacquire other properties corresponding to their independent mode of life. Tho 
ears of tlie Hog arc diminished, and his skull is cnlai'ged j the speed and agility of 
the Horse are increased ; the courage of the Ass reappears especially among the 
Stallions ; and the petulance of tho Goat seems to bo augmented with tho ease and 
agility of his movements. We also find that the permanent secretion of milk in the 
Cow and She- Goat is an acquired property of domestication. In conducting these 
inquiries, it often becomes difficult to distinguish those changes which are entirely at- 
tributable to tho loss of properties fonncrly acquired by domestication, from those new 
changes induced by climate, food, and other physical conditions under which the 
animals are placed. It is to some accidental influence of this kind, that wo must 
ascribe the difference in the primitive hues of the Horse and Ox, which in America 
are chestnut bay and chestnut brown ; while in tho Old Continent white is the original 
colour. Yet, after making due allowance for tho joint or separate influence of food 
and climate, and after comparing the several races with each other, .ind with the 
circumstances in which they are placed, wo are compelled to admit the general prin- 
ciple, that habits of independence occasion the wild races to revert continually to- 
wards a primitive form and colour, which can he no other than those from which 
they have diverged in tho course of ages. 
In the second place, upon examining the waitings and monuments of antiquity, we 
find that all our domestic animals liave existed throughout Europe in the wild state. 
Most of them have undergone modifications dependent on the antiquity of their 
domestication. This progress can be traced in the Horse which has undergone 
perceptible changes during the interval of seventeen centuries from the age of Pliny 
to the present time. The pace of the pas-releve has been acquired by our Horses 
.since the time of the Romans, and this quality is now transmitted to posterity. Wo 
further perceive that while thti ancients were acquainted with only four varieties of 
the Horse, and but few of the Dog, the variations of these animals at the present day 
are absolutely innumerable. Tho influence of domestication in developing tho milder 
and more useful qualities of the Horse, the Ox, and the Dog, as well as in perfecting 
their intelligence, may be clearly traced. There also exists a tendency to break down 
the original distinctions between the carnivorous and herbivorous animals, by inducing 
a kind of omnivorous habit, especially when these animals are reduced to extremities. 
Tho dense fleece of the Sheep and the harking of the Dog have been considered to 
be the acquired results of Domestication. Hereafter wo shall investigate the grounds 
upon which those opinions s(*em cliiefiy to repose. 
Every where we are struck with that general tendency of the Mammalia, and in- 
deed of all living beings, to preserve the forms impressed upon them at the moment of 
their creation. As soon as the industry of the Horticulturist, or tho skilful precau- 
tions of the Grazier and Veterinarian, are suspended, both Plants and Animals alike 
feel the influence of tins aftieism, which leads them to revert to the forms of their 
remotest ancestors. The vegetable resumes its rustic garb, or tho bitter and use- 
less secretions of its wild condition, tho animal loses some of the most important and 
valuable of its properties. Both alike revert to a uniform tjqjc in their external and 
internal characters. Animated beings are soon stripped of those rich attributes 
which they had derived from the cultivation of the soil, or from civilization, tho abun- 
dance of nutritious food, a careful shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, or their 
habits of intercourse with the superior genius of Man, but above all, from his care in 
regulating their unions among themselves. A bountiful Nature is ever ready to sub- 
stitute qualities, which bear relation only to the w'ants of the animal, and tho part it 
should perform on the great stage of created existence, for those other properties, 
which doubtless were imparted only for the purpose of administering to the wants and 
necessities of Man. 
GENERAL REVIEW OF THE MAMMALIA CONTINUED, 
Jlc-capitulation — Rclaiion$ which the dimensions of the Maminalia hear to the pecu- 
liarities of their organizatioUf and the stations they are designed to occupy — Oc- 
casional difference of Size between the Sexes. 
That original types have been impres'^ed upon species at tlic moment of their creation, 
seems then to he one of the most general and important laws of Animated Nature. 
If the preceding observations have any force, the conclusions in which Lamarck and 
other experienced Naturalists have inferred the perpetual variation of species, and 
the indefinite extent of their modifications, during tho course of ages, become wholly 
inadmissible. Great as tho variations of Animals and Plants' may appear upon a 
superficial consideration, they seem, upon a more cautious investigation, to be in reality 
confined within certain very narrow and well defined limits. The care of tho Horti- 
culturist can modify tho secretions of a plant, and the relative magnitude of its parts; 
lie can obtain an extraordinary development of one part, at tho expense of another ; 
lie can transform the stamens into petals, and occasion a single flower to become 
double; he can import a delicious flavor to the fruit; or lead to the development of 
fleshy and tuberculous roots by suppressing the branches, shortening tho stalks, or 
diminishing the flowers. Availing himself of a corresponding law of Nature, the 
Grazier can modify the g<mcral functions of Nutrition and Generation among Animals. 
Among tho Ruminantia, tho cares of Man may load to the alteration of particular 
secretions ; their milk may be rendered permanent, or their hair fine and silky. 
Ily regulating tho temperature to which they arc exposed, or tho quality of their 
food, by the annihilation of other organic functions, Man can not only succeed in 
modifying individuals, but Nature lightens the labours of his posterity, in transmitting 
their acquired properties to future generations. But on abandoning those artificial 
products to their owm mutual action, the original equilibrium of their functions re- 
stores itself. The balance of animal forces cither becomes rectified in the individuals, 
or their posterity undergo a course of regeneration in resuining their original habits, or 
perhaps in unitmg with the wild individuals of their own species. 
From this invincible tendency of each species to resume its original form, we are 
led to regard all the variations of Animals and Plants but as the vibrations of a 
pendulum, which continues to oscillate around a fixed and determinate axis. The 
original type is continued by generation, according to constant laws, and the in- 
numerable disturbing causes to which it is exposed, whether internal or external, 
arc insufficient to subvert this harmony of parts. The inherent disposition of each 
specific type reappears after all oiu* attempts to annihilate it, and it is in Natural 
History as in Morals, 
Naturam cxpellas furca, tamen usque recurret. 
Nature further prevents all permanent confusion of species by the instinctive aversion 
of allied animals. Even when Hybrid or adulterous unions do arise, the Mules are 
usually sterile, and these Mongrel products appear to stand in relation to surround- 
ing beings as something unnatural and monstrous. 
The tendency of a species to produce the same form on the one hand, and the 
causes of deviation on tho other, compose two opposite and counter-balancing forces, 
by the mutual reaction of which each separate force becomes modified, and from their 
combined action there thence proceed effects which may be regarded as the resultant 
of tho two forces. 
The peculiarities of a race are tho more decidedly marked according as it is more 
ancient. Among the domestic animals, there can be no doubt that a great number of 
these individuals belong to races whose origin dates back from a very remote period 
of antiquity. Those races, on tho contrary, which are known to be of more recent 
origin, preserve their peculiarities with greater difficulty, and always tend to revert to 
the forms of those more ancient types, to the crossing or modification of which they 
owe their own existence. Instances of this law occur daily under our eyes, and indeed 
are matter of notoriety to gardeners and breeders of cattle. They are, however, 
most perceptible in the Dog, where there often appears, from the crossing of races, a 
new variety, which, however, is found to possess a short and fleeting existence, the 
common lot of all types of modem origin. These considerations would lead us to 
assign a very high antiquity to the period of tho first appearance of the most per- 
manent races. 
The attempts of some recent German and French philosophers to explain the 
immense diversity of animals and plants upon Physiological principles, and without 
an appeal to an original and specific creation, appear to us to bo wholly unsatisfactory. 
As well might they attempt to resolve by Mechanical principles how it happens that 
one time-picce shows tho day of the month, another only the hour of tho day, while 
a third will point the minutes and seconds, — differences which ean only be explained 
by the intention and design of tho Horologian. 
Instead of speculating in these inaccessible regions, the Natural Historian endea- 
vours to trace the relations of created beings with each other, and with the general 
laws of inanimate Nature, rather than to indulge in conjecture upon the physical 
causes of their diversity. 
All created beings must necessarily be formed in direct correspondence with each 
other, and the places they are destined to inhabit. In the same manner, as particular 
organs are adapted to particular purposes, so must the general dimensions of the 
body correspond accurately with surrounding circumstances. We see tho eye exhi- 
bit different relations in respect to light, according as it is intended to see to a small 
or remote distance, or through the medium of air or of water. The ear again is 
organized relatively to the vibrations of the air, to melodious sounds, as in many 
Birds ; the noso to odoriferous efiluvia, to animal odours in the Carnassier, to 
vegetable in the Herbivorous tribes ; the organs of mastication and snetion to the 
nature of the food ; the arms and moans of defence for the preservation of each 
species, and the destruction of its prey. 
It is evident, therefore, that if we can trace design and correspondence between 
particular organs and functions, a certain general equilibrium of functions and organs 
must also exist, and each species or original type must possess that general form, 
dimensions, and duration, which will enable it to continue its existence for a limited 
time, and porfomx its part among created beings. 
On comparing all tho Mammalia among themselves, we arc at once struck with 
the remarkable differoiicos in their dimensions, which present a greater amount of 
variation in these respects than perhaps in any other class of animals. The Minute 
Shrew (Sorex e.xilis) is the smallest of known Mammalia, and measures only one 
eight hundredth part of the length of the Basque Wliale (Balwna hoops), while in 
bulk it is only about one part in half a million. In other words, assuming the di- 
mensions of the smallest species of tho Mammalia** 1, then the length of the 
largest animal of this class is ™ 800, and its bulk is = 500,000, 
This great disparity of size chiefly arises, it must be observed, between Mammalia 
differing consider.Tbly from each other in their external organization. If wc com- 
pare together animals of the same order only, the discrepancy in their dimensions is 
brought within much narrower limits. Tlie sizes of these animals approximate still 
more closely if we descend to tribes, families, or genera; and so invariably docs Nature 
preserve this relation between the bulk of an animal and its external characters, that 
if we find two congenerous species, which present remarkable differences in size, we 
may be almost certain that there will also be found important differences in some of 
those organs which commonly serve to supply tho generio characters. Among the 
Quadrumana, for example, the Apes form a most natural family, and one in which 
tho general height remains tolerably constant. If wo except tho Orangs and the 
Cynocephala, which arc the largest, and the Ouistitis, whoso size is much less than 
the others, and which almost stand out as an isolated group from the remaining 
genera in respect to their external characters, wo shall find that the remainder differ 
hut slightly in their dimensions. Among all tho Cynocephala, the length of their 
head and body remains uniformly constant, being a little more than two feet. 
Again, the Ouistitis compose a genus very numerous in species; and yet, when con- 
sidered by themselves, they present a result much more remarkable. On comparing 
