Part 18

The species of the ox, of all domestic animals, seems to be that on which its food acts with the greatest influence. It attains a prodigious size in those countries where the pasture is rich and nourishing. The ancients called the oxen of Ethiopia and some provinces of Asia by the name _bull-elephants_, because in those countries they nearly approached the size of the elephant. The great plenty of herbage, and its succulent quality, produced this effect, proofs of which we have in our own climate. An ox fed on the tops of the verdant mountains of Savoy or Switzerland acquires twice the bulk of our oxen; though the oxen of Switzerland, like ours, are shut up in the stable during the greatest part of the year. The difference arises from their being admitted to free pasture as soon as the snow is melted; whereas in our provinces they are not permitted to enter the meadows till after the crop of grass reserved for the horses is carried off; they are, therefore, neither amply fed nor properly nourished, and it would prove extremely useful to the nation in general, if a regulation were made to abolish these useless pastures, and to encourage enclosures. Climate also has great influence on the nature of the ox. In the northern parts of both continents, it is covered with a long soft hair resembling wool; and on its shoulders is a large hunch, which deformity is found in all the Oxen of Asia, Africa, and America. Those of Europe alone have no hunch. The last, are the primitive race to which the hunched race ascend by intermixture in the first or second generation. What still further proves this hunched race to be only a variety of the first, is its being subject to great degradations. There is an uncommon difference in their size. The little zebu of Arabia is not more than a tenth part the size of the bull-elephant.

In general, the influence of food is greater, and produces more sensible effects on those animals which feed on herbage and fruits. Those that live only upon flesh, vary less from that cause than from the influence of climate; because flesh is an aliment, already assimilated to the nature of the carnivorous animal that devours it; whereas grass being the first product of the earth, possesses all its properties, and immediately transmits the terrestrial qualities to the animal.

Thus the dog on which food seems to have but slight influence is, of all carnivorous animals, the most various species; it seems to follow exactly the difference of climate in its degradation; it is naked in the warmest climates; clothed with a thick and coarse hair in the northern regions, and adorned with a beautiful silken coat in Spain and Syria, where the mildness of the air changes the hair of most animals into a sort of silk. But independently of these external varieties, which are produced by the influence of climate alone, the dog is subjected to other alterations which proceed from its condition, its captivity, or its state of society with respect to man.

The augmentation, or diminution, of its size, is caused by the care taken to unite the great with the small individuals. The shortness of the ears and tail proceeds also from the hand of man. Dogs which have had their tails and ears cut for a few generations transmit those defects wholly, or partly, to their descendants. I have seen dogs whelped without tails, which I at first took for individual monsters; but I am since assured that this breed exists, and is perpetuated by generation. The long and hanging ear, which is the most general and certain mark of domestic slavery, is it not common to almost every dog? Among thirty different races of which the species is at present composed, only two or three have preserved their primitive ears; the shepherd's dog, the wolf-dog, and the dog of the north, alone have erect ears. The voice of these animals has also undergone strange alterations. The dog seems to owe its vociferous nature to man, who, of all beings, uses his tongue the most. In a state of nature the dog is almost dumb, and seldom even howls, except when pressed with hunger; it acquired the faculty of barking by intercourse with men in polished societies, for when transported to extreme climates, where the people are uncultivated, as the Laplanders, or Negroes, he ceases to bark, assumes his natural howling, and often becomes absolutely dumb. Dogs with erect ears, particularly the shepherd's dog, which is the least degenerated, is also that which makes the least use of his voice, passing a life of solitude in the country, and having no intercourse but with sheep and a few simple peasants, he is, like them, of a serious and silent disposition, though at the same time very active and sagacious: of all dogs this has the fewest acquired qualities, and the most natural talents; it is also the most useful to preserve good order, and to protect the sheep; and it would prove more advantageous to increase this breed than to extend that of other dogs, who are of no other service but for our amusement, and whose numbers are so great, that there is not a town or village where a number of families might not be fed with the aliments consumed by these animals.

The domestic state has greatly contributed to vary the colour of animals, which was originally, in all, either brown or black. The dog, the ox, the goat, the sheep, and the horse, have imbibed all kinds of colours. The hog has changed from black to white; and pure white, without any spot, seems to mark the last degree of degeneration, and which is commonly accompanied with imperfections or essential defects. In the race of white men, those who are remarkably so, and whose hair beard, and eyebrows, are white, are often deaf, and also have red and weak eyes. In the black race, the fairest negroes are of a nature still more weak and defective. All those animals which are absolutely white have the defects of being hard of hearing and having red eyes. This kind of degeneration, though more common in domestic animals, is sometimes seen in the wild species; as in the elephant, stag, fallow-deer, monkies, moles, and mice, in all of which this colour is always accompanied with either a greater or a less weakness of body and dulness of sensation.

But of all animals the camel seems to have the greatest and deepest impressions of slavery made upon him. He comes into the world with prominences on his back, and callosities on the breast and knees; these callosities are formed by the continual friction on those parts, as is plain from their being filled with pus and corrupted blood. As he never travels without being heavily loaded, the pressure of the burden has prevented the free extension and uniform growth of the muscular parts of the back, and produced a swelling in the surrounding flesh; the camel likewise being constrained at first to rest or sleep in a kneeling posture, in time it becomes habitual; and from supporting the whole weight of his body, for several hours in the day, on his breast and knees, the skin of those parts is rubbed off by pressing against the earth, and by degrees they become hard and callous. The lama, which passes his life, like the camel, under the pressure of heavy burdens, and likewise rests on his breast and knees, has similar callosities, which are perpetuated by generation. The baboons and monkies, which, whether sleeping or waking, are generally in a sitting posture, have also callosities on their posteriors. This callous skin is even adherent to the bones, against which it is continually pressed by the weight of the body. But the callosities of the baboons and monkies are of a dry and healing nature, as they do not proceed from the oppression of any superabundant weight, but, on the contrary, are only the effects of natural habits, for these animals remain longer in a sitting than in any other posture. The callosities of the monkey are like the double skin on the sole of a man's foot. This is a natural callosity, which our habit of walking or standing renders thicker and harder, according to the greater or lesser degree of friction we effect by exercise.

Wild animals not being immediately subject to the empire of man, are not liable to such great alterations as the domestic kinds. Their nature seems to vary according to different climates, though they are no where degraded. If they were at liberty to chuse their climate and food these alterations would be still less; but as they have at all times been hunted and exiled by man, or even by those quadrupeds which have greater strength, and are more ferocious, the greatest part of them have been obliged to quit their native country, and to live in climates less favourable to their constitutions. Those which had sufficient flexibility of nature to accommodate themselves to their new situation have dispersed to great distances, whereas others have no resource but to confine themselves within the neighbouring desarts of their native country. There is no species of animal, except man, universally spread over the face of the terrestrial globe. Some, and indeed great numbers, are confined to the southern parts of the Old Continent, and others to the southern parts of the new; while others, though fewer in number, are confined to the cold regions of the north; and, instead of extending themselves towards the south, they have passed from one continent to the other by roads which have hitherto remained unknown to us. There are other species which inhabit particular mountains or valleys, and the alterations of their nature are so much the less apparent the more they are confined to a small space.

Climate and food having little influence on wild animals, and the empire of man still less, their principal varieties proceed from another cause. They are relative to the combination of their number in individuals, as well in those which produce as in those which are produced. In those species, like that of the roe-buck, where the male attaches himself to one female, and never changes, the young ones demonstrate the fidelity of their parents by their entire resemblance to them. In those species, on the contrary, where the females often change the male, as in the stag, for instance, there are a number of varieties; and as there is not in nature a single individual which perfectly resembles another, the number of varieties in animals is in proportion to the greater or less frequency of their produce. In species where the female produces five or six young ones, three or four times a year, the number of varieties must necessarily be greater than in those where the produce is annual, and a single one. The inferior species, therefore, which produce oftener, and in greater numbers than the larger, are subject to more varieties. Size of body, which seems only to be a relative quality, nevertheless possesses positive attributes in the laws of Nature. The large species is as fixed as the small is changeable. We shall be convinced of this fact by enumerating the varieties which take place in the large and small animals.

In Guinea the wild boar has very long ears, turned backwards. In China he has a large pendant belly, and very short legs. At Cape Verd, and in other places, his tusks are very large and crooked like the horns of an ox. In a domestic state, and in cold and temperate climates, his ears are somewhat pendent, and his bristles are white. I do not place the peccari, nor the babiroussa, among the varieties of the wild boar, because neither belong to that species, although they approach very near to it.

We find that the stag, in dry, hot, and mountainous countries, such as Corsica and Sardinia, has lost above half his original size; his hair has become brown, and his horns blackish. In cold and wet countries, as in Bohemia, and at the Ardennes, his size is greatly increased, his coat and horns are become almost black, and his hair is so greatly lengthened as to form a kind of beard on his chin. In North America the horns of the stag are extended and branched by crooked antlers. In a domestic state his coat changes from a yellow to a white; and when not at perfect liberty, or in large parks, his legs are deformed and crooked. I do not reckon the axis among the varieties of the stag; it approaches nearer that of the fallow-deer, and is, perhaps, only a variety of it.

It would be a difficult point to determine the original species of the fallow-deer. It is not in any part of the globe entirely domestic, nor absolutely wild. It varies indifferently from a yellowish brown to a pied, and from a pied to a white. His horns and tail, in different races, are longer or shorter, and his flesh is good or bad, according to the soil and climate. Like the stag he is found in both continents, and he seems to be larger in Virginia, and the other temperate provinces of America, than in Europe. It is the same with the roe-buck; he is of a larger size in the New than in the Old Continent; but in other respects, his varieties are confined to some differences in the colour of the hair, which changes from a yellow to a deep brown. The smallest roe-bucks are generally of a fallow colour, and the largest brown. The roe-buck and fallow-deer, are the only animals common to both continents, and which are larger and stronger in the New than in the Old.

The ass has undergone but few changes, even though subjected to the most rigid servitude, for his nature is so stubborn, that it equally resists ill treatment, and the inconveniences of a foreign climate and coarse food. Though he is a native of hot countries, he can live and even multiply without any assistance from man in temperate climates. Formerly there were onagres, or wild asses, in the desarts of Asia Minor, but at present there are very few, and are only to be found in numbers in the desarts of Tartary. The Daurian mule, called _czigithai_ by the Mongol Tartars, is, probably, the same animal as the onagre of the Asiatic provinces; as the former differs only from the latter by the length and colour of the hair, which, according to Mr. Bell, seems to be undulated with brown and white.[AG] These czigithais are found in the forests of Tartary, even to the 51st, and 52d degree of latitude. They must not be confounded with the zebra, whose colours are more bright, and quite otherwise disposed; besides the zebra forms a particular species, as different from that of the ass, as from the horse. The only remarkable degradation of the ass is that the skin, in a domestic state has become more pliant and lost those small tubercles which are found scattered over the onagre, and of which the people of the Levant make what is known here by the name of _Shagreen_.

[Footnote AG: Perhaps Mr. Bell, who says he only saw the skins of these animals, may have seen the skins of the zebra instead. For other travellers do not mention that the _czigithais_ or _onagres_ of Dauria are streaked with brown and white like the zebra; besides, there are in the cabinet at St. Petersburg, skins of the zebra and skins of the _czigithais_, both of which are shewn to travellers.]

The hare is of a flexible, yet firm nature, for though dispersed over almost every climate of the Old Continent, yet it continues nearly the same, its skin only becoming rather whiter during the winter in very cold climates, but it resumes its natural colour in summer, which only varies from a fallow to a reddish hue. The qualities of the flesh vary also, for the red hares are always the best eating. But the rabbit, though not of so flexible a nature as the hare, being less diffused, and seemingly confined to particular countries, is, nevertheless, subject to more variations; because the hare is in every part of the world wild, whereas the rabbit is almost every where half domesticated. The wild rabbits have varied in their colours, from fallow to white or black; they have also varied in size, and in the quantity and quality of their fur. This animal, which is originally a native of Spain, has acquired a long tail in Tartary, and a thick bushy coat in Syria. Black hares are often found in cold countries. It is asserted also that in Norway, and some other northern regions, there are hares with horns. Klein has given figures of two of these horned hares. It is easily seen, from an inspection of these figures, that the horns resemble those of the roe-buck. This variety, if it exists, is only individual, and probably appears in those places alone where the hare cannot meet with grass, and is obliged to feed on the bark, buds, and leaves of trees.

The elk, whose species is confined to the northern part of the two continents, is only less in America than in Europe, and we see by the enormous horns found under the ground in Canada, Russia, Siberia, &c. that these animals were formerly much larger than they are at present. This difference of size proceeded perhaps from the perfect tranquillity which they enjoyed in the forests; and, not being disturbed by the human species, which had not at that time penetrated into those climates, they were at liberty to chuse their residence in those spots where the air, soil, and water agreed best with their constitutions. The rein-deer, which the Laplanders have rendered domestic, is, on this account, more changed than the elk, which has not yet been reduced to slavery. The wild rein-deer are larger, stronger, and their hair is blacker than the domestic kind: the last have varied in the colour of their hair, and also in the size of their horns. The lichen, or the rein-deer liverwort, constitutes the principal food of these animals, and seems, by its quality, to contribute greatly to the nutritive growth of the horns, which are proportionally larger in the rein-deer than in any other species; and it is, perhaps, this same nutriment which in this climate produces horns on the head of the hare, in the same manner as it does upon that of the female rein-deer; for in every other climate, there are no horned hares, nor any female animal that is furnished with horns like the male.

The elephant is the only quadruped on which a domestic state has never had any influence, because in that state it will not propagate, and consequently cannot transmit to its species those defects which its servile condition might occasion. The varieties in the elephant are only slight, and almost individual: its natural colour is black; some of them, however, are red, and others white, but those are very few in number. The size of the elephant also varies, according to the longitude rather than the latitude of the climate. Under the torrid zone, where it is, as we may say, shut up, and under the same line, in the eastern parts of Africa, it attains fifteen feet in height; whereas in the western parts of the same country it only arrives to the height of ten or eleven feet, which proves, that though great heat is necessary to the full expansion of its body, yet excessive heat reduces it to less dimensions. The rhinoceros seems to be of a more uniform and less variable size, and only differs in its own breed by that singular character which distinguishes it from every other animal, namely, the great horn on its nose. This horn is single in the Asiatic rhinoceros, and double in the African.

I shall not speak here of the varieties which are found in every species of carnivorous animals, as they are extremely slight; because all animals which feed on flesh are the least dependent on man; and besides, this nutriment being already prepared by Nature, they receive scarcely any of the qualities of the soil they inhabit; besides, being endowed with strength and weapons, they have the power of chusing their own climate: consequently the three causes of change, alteration, and degeneration, of which we have spoken, can have but very slight and trivial effect on them.

After this glance at the variations peculiar to each species, a more important consideration presents itself, that of the change of the species themselves; that ancient and immemorial degeneration made in each family, or in every genus, under which we may comprehend the proximating species. Among all terrestrial animals there are only a few detached species, which, like the human, at once compose both species and genus. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the giraffe, form genera, or simple species, which propagate only in a direct line, and have no collateral branches; every other appears to form families, in which one principal trunk is generally to be recognized, and whence issues several different branches, so much the more or less numerous as the individuals in each species are barren or prolific.

Under this point of view, the horse, the zebra, and the ass, are all of the same family. If the horse is the source, or principal trunk, the zebra and the ass will be collateral branches. The number of their resemblances being infinitely greater than that of their differences, we may look on them as constituting only one genus, the principal characters of which are clearly announced, and common to all three. They are the only animals which have solid hoofs without any appearance of toes or nails. Though they form three very distinct species they are not absolutely separated, since the male-ass will produce with the mare, and the horse with the she-ass; and it is probable that if we were to tame the zebra, and mollify his savage nature, it would likewise produce with the horse and the ass.

This mule, therefore, which has hitherto been regarded as a vitiated production, as a monster composed of two different natures, and consequently incapable of reproduction, is not so base as might be imagined from the above prejudice, since it is not really unprolific, and its sterility depends on certain external and peculiar circumstances. It is well known that mules produce in warm countries, and we have some examples of their producing even in our temperate climates. But we do not know whether this generation ever proceeded from the union of a male with a female mule, or whether the production were not effected by the junction of a male with a mare, or a male-ass with a mule. There are two kinds of males, the first is the great mule, which proceeds from the junction of a male-ass with a mare, and the small mule, proceeding from the horse and the she-ass, which we shall call _bardeau_, to distinguish it from the other. The ancients were acquainted with both, and distinguished them by two different names; they called the first _mulus_, and the second _hinnus_. They assert that the _mulus_ produced with the mare, an animal called _ginnus_[AH], or _hinnus_; that the she-mule conceived very readily, but seldom brought the foetus to perfection: and that, though they have had frequent examples of mules bringing forth, yet such productions were looked on as prodigies. But what is a prodigy of nature, except an event which happens more rarely than some others? The he-mule, therefore, can engender, and the female conceive, and bring forth, in certain circumstances: hence it is only required to know what these circumstances are, and to acquire further information concerning degeneration by a mixture of species, and consequently on the unity and diversity of each genus. To succeed in these enquiries, the he-mule must be joined with a she-mule, a mare, and a she-ass; the same should be done with the bardeau, and then the result of these six copulations ought to be carefully marked. The females of the ass, mule, and bardeau, should also be paired with a horse.

[Footnote AH: The word _ginnus_ is used by Aristotle in two senses: the first to denote in general an imperfect animal, an abortion, a dwarf animal, proceeding sometimes from the horse and the ass; and the second to signify the particular produce of the mule and the mare.]