12 
THE HOG. 
WILD HOG. 
have altogether ceased to exist. From the form of their teeth, it appears that they were herbivorous, and those the most nearly 
allied to the Hogs, seem to have frequented vast rivers or fresh-water marshes. While these creatures inhabited the earth, the 
ruminating tribes, in which are comprehended the Sheep, the Ox, the Deer, were comparatively rare; but as countless periods 
rolled on, and the earth became suited for a new order of life, shall we say for the habitation of the last of created beings, Man, 
the number of the pachydermatous tribes diminished, and the ruminating, so essential to mankind, took their place. The huge 
Mastodons, Tapirs, and gigantic Hogs, or creatures resembling Hogs, though required to consume the abundant herbs of a then 
prolific earth, were not, we may infer, adapted to the present condition of the world and its inhabitants; therefore, we may believe 
they ceased to exist. Of these tribes, the few genera that have been enumerated alone remain, and the number and productiveness 
of each seem to be adjusted on the nicest balance to the order of things which an Omnipotent Providence has ordained. The 
Elephant, which once spread in countless herds to the Polar Circles, is now confined to the woods of the Tropics; the Rhinoceros, 
yet more rare, is limited to the hottest regions of India and Africa: the Hippopotamus, one of the hugest of living quadrupeds, is 
confined to the larger rivers of Africa, where he passes his harmless life under the waters; and the Tapir, a creature intermediate 
between the Pig and the Elephant, merely lingers in some of the forests of intertropical countries. But the Hog,—the contemned 
and misshapen glutton, the lowest of brutes, and an anomaly amongst his fellows,—survives the revolutions of thousands of ages, 
and is reproduced in countless multitudes in every region of the earth. Let us consider how far his form is imperfect, and how far 
he merits the obloquy which is cast upon the habitudes and instincts with which Nature has endowed him. 
The Hog, we have seen, is chiefly herbivorous in his state of nature, or at least he does not prey upon animals that fly from him, 
and much of his food consists of the roots of plants, and the worms and larvae which he finds under ground. To fit him for grubbing 
up this kind of food, the spinous processes of the vertebrae, of the neck and back are of great size and strength, and immense muscles 
attached to them and the cranium, give a prodigious power to the neck, whose strength is further increased by its shortness and little 
flexibility. His fore limbs are short, and his face is prolonged, that, in digging, he may reach below the plane of the surface on which 
he stands; his face is wedge-shaped, that it may the better penetrate the ground, and terminates in a moveable disc of strong car¬ 
tilage, furnished largely with nerves to give it sensibility. The eyes are small and sunk, that, when the animal rushes through 
thick coverts of brushwood, they may not be lacerated; and as a farther defence to the eyes in rushing through woods, the tusks 
of the male curve upwards before the orbits. The height and strength of his haunch and limbs, enable him to throw forward his 
body with vast force, and his tusks are so placed that he can inflict desperate wounds, by bringing them underneath his enemy and 
tearing or ripping him; and his strong jaws enable him to seize objects with such force, that the bite of no animal is more dangerous. 
So far is he from manifesting want of address in his modes of attack and defence, that both are precisely those in which he is enabled 
to employ his natural weapons with the surest effect. And with respect to his want of speed, it is seen that it suffices for the pur¬ 
poses of his own safety, enabling him to outstrip for a space the beasts of prey that are his assailants. When the Hog is described 
as a creature of gross habits and unclean tastes, as having the senses of touch and taste obtuse, and as being so insensible that mice 
may burrow in his fat without his seeming to feel, and so forth, we must see that this is not the descuption of an animal as he has 
been formed by nature, but as he is measured by some standard of our own. M^e cannot say that he is unclean, because Nature 
has furnished him with powerful organs of digestion, which enable him to derive nourishment from so many substances ; and 
with respect to his voracity, what is this but the result of the extent and perfection of his digestive and respiratory organs ? 
We cannot know what his sensations of taste are, but have no reason to conclude with M. Buffon that they are obtuse. The 
dulness of his sense of touch is inferred from the existence of the thick layer of fat which envelopes his body; but the plexus of 
nerves which give sensibility to the skm, is exterior to this fatty layer, and is not affected by it. The skin of the Hog is far 
from being insensible. He suffers under the irritation of gnats and other insects, and endeavours to piotect himself from then pei— 
sedition by rolling in moist places, and covering himself with mud. He feels blows acutely, and manifests his suffering by loud 
cries; and with respect to the burrowing of mice in his fat, this can scarcely but be a fable, though vouched for by Varro, and 
handed d<*wn as truth from writer to writer for 1800 years. 
