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MAMMALIA. 
his force by the tail in the opposite direction. As the beast 
supposes that it is required to go backwards, it precipitates itself 
in the reverse way. 
The voracity of this animal is as proverbial as its obstinacy. 
No sort of food comes amiss to it. It devours indifferently meat 
and vegetable products. A remarkable fact is 7 that it can eat 
without danger hemlock and henbane, either of which are deadly 
poison to other animals. 
One may say that Man has manufactured the Pig, and that he 
makes it take the shape he finds most to his liking. The modifi- 
cations this animal has been made to undergo, by an elaborate 
system of breeding and rearing, are truly wonderful. This art 
has been carried to great perfection in England. Not only has 
the flesh of this Pachyderm been very greatly improved, but, 
moreover, their primitive proportions have, as we may say, been 
converted to the most desired form. The English, by their mode 
of treatment and the food they give it, have manufactured a new 
sort of monster, when we compare it with the primitive and wild 
type of Pig. Further this zoological monster is a chef-d’ oeuvre in an 
economical point of view. When it has attained this ideal type of 
perfection, the Pig is square-shaped ; its head disappears in a 
cushion of fat ; its belly reaches to the ground ; its whole body 
speaks of its weight and quality of flesh. What a difference there 
is between these singular products of civilization and the Pigs 
on our (French) farms ; lank, miserable creatures, making a 
fit member of the household of the peasant, whose condition is bad, 
whose land is unprofitable, and who is still ignorant of the best 
systems of breeding. 
In a work on the Pig,* M. Gustave Heuze divides into three 
groups the porcine races which live in Europe. The first com- 
prises the French races and their varieties ; the second contains 
all those that are of foreign origin ; to the third group belong the 
varieties which result from crosses between the French and 
foreign races. We will give the characteristic features which M. 
Heuze has marked out for distinguishing each of these varieties. 
Among the French breeds, the common race has the head and 
muzzle elongated ; the neck slender and long ; the ears thick, 
semi-pendant, and projecting in front of the eyes ; the body thin ; 
* Paris, 8 vo. 1867. 
