Principles of Geology Part 49

If we are to infer that some one of the wild gra.s.ses has been transformed into the common wheat, and that some animal of the genus _Canis_, still unreclaimed, has been metamorphosed into the dog, merely because we cannot find the domestic dog, or the cultivated wheat, in a state of nature, we may be next called upon to make similar admissions in regard to the camel; for it seems very doubtful whether any race of this species of quadruped is now wild.

_Changes in plants produced by cultivation._--But if agriculture, it will be said, does not supply examples of extraordinary changes of form and organization, the horticulturist can, at least, appeal to facts which may confound the preceding train of reasoning. The crab has been transformed into the apple; the sloe into the plum; flowers have changed their color, and become double; and these new characters can be perpetuated by seed; a bitter plant, with wavy sea-green leaves, has been taken from the sea-side, where it grew like wild charlock; has been transplanted into the garden, lost its saltness, and has been metamorphosed into two distinct vegetables, as unlike each other as is each to the parent plant--the red cabbage and the cauliflower. These, and a mult.i.tude of a.n.a.logous facts, are undoubtedly among the wonders of nature, and attest more strongly, perhaps, the extent to which species may be modified, than any examples derived from the animal kingdom. But in these cases we find that we soon reach certain limits, beyond which we are unable to cause the individuals descending from the same stock to vary; while, on the other hand, it is easy to show that these extraordinary varieties could seldom arise, and could never be perpetuated in a wild state for many generations, under any imaginable combination of accidents. They may be regarded as extreme cases, brought about by human interference, and not as phenomena which indicate a capability of indefinite modification in the natural world.

The propagation of a plant by buds or grafts, and by cuttings, is obviously a mode which nature does not employ; and this multiplication, as well as that produced by roots and layers, seems merely to operate as an extension of the life of an individual, and not as a reproduction of the species such as happens by seed. All plants increased by grafts or layers retain precisely the peculiar qualities of the individual to which they owe their origin, and, like an individual, they have only a determinate existence; in some cases longer, and in others shorter.[812]

It seems now admitted by horticulturists, that none of our garden varieties of fruit are ent.i.tled to be considered strictly permanent, but that they wear out after a time;[813] and we are thus compelled to resort again to seeds; in which case there is so decided a tendency in the seedlings to revert to the original type, that our utmost skill is sometimes baffled in attempting to recover the desired variety.

_Varieties of the cabbage._--The different races of cabbages afford, as was admitted, an astonis.h.i.+ng example of deviation from a common type; but we can scarcely conceive them to have originated, much less to have lasted for several generations, without the intervention of man. It is only by strong manures that these varieties have been obtained, and in poorer soils they instantly degenerate. If, therefore, we suppose in a state of nature the seed of the wild _Bra.s.sica oleracea_ to have been wafted from the sea-side to some spot enriched by the dung of animals, and to have there become a cauliflower, it would soon diffuse its seed to some comparatively sterile soils around, and the offspring would relapse to the likeness of the parent stock.

But if we go so far as to imagine the soil, in the spot first occupied, to be constantly manured by herds of wild animals, so as to continue as rich as that of a garden, still the variety could not be maintained; because we know that each of these races is p.r.o.ne to fecundate others, and gardeners are compelled to exert the utmost diligence to prevent cross-breeds. The intermixture of the pollen of varieties growing in the poorer soil around would soon destroy the peculiar characters of the race which occupied the highly manured tract; for, if these accidents so continually happen, in spite of our care, among the culinary varieties, it is easy to see how soon this cause might obliterate every marked singularity in a wild state.

Besides, it is well known that, although the pampered races which we rear in our gardens for use or ornament may often be perpetuated by seed, yet they rarely produce seed in such abundance, or so prolific in quality, as wild individuals; so that if the care of man were withdrawn, the most fertile variety would always, in the end, prevail over the more sterile.

Similar remarks may be applied to the double flowers, which present such strange anomalies to the botanist. The ovarium, in such cases, is frequently abortive; and the seeds, when prolific, are generally much fewer than where the flowers are single.

_Changes caused by soil._--Some curious experiments, recently made on the production of blue instead of red flowers in the _Hydrangea hortensis_, ill.u.s.trate the immediate effect of certain soils on the colors of the calyx and petals. In garden-mould or compost, the flowers are invariably red; in some kinds of bog-earth they are blue; and the same change is always produced by a particular sort of yellow loam.

_Varieties of the primrose._--Linnaeus was of opinion that the primrose, oxlip, cowslip, and polyanthus, were only varieties of the same species.

The majority of the modern botanists, on the contrary, consider them to be distinct, although some conceived that the oxlip might be a cross between the cowslip and the primrose. Mr. Herbert has lately recorded the following experiment:--"I raised from the natural seed of one umbel of a highly manured red cowslip a primrose, a cowslip, oxlips of the usual and other colors, a black polyanthus, a hose-in-hose cowslip, and a natural primrose bearing its flower on a polyanthus stalk. From the seed of that very hose-in-hose cowslip I have since raised a hose-in-hose primrose. I therefore consider all these to be only local varieties, depending upon soil and situation."[814] Professor Henslow, of Cambridge, has since confirmed this experiment of Mr. Herbert; so that we have an example, not only of the remarkable varieties which the florist can obtain from a common stock, but of the distinctness of a.n.a.logous races found in a wild state.[815]

On what particular ingredient, or quality in the earth, these changes depend, has not yet been ascertained.[816] But gardeners are well aware that particular plants, when placed under the influence of certain circ.u.mstances, are changed in various ways, according to the species; and as often as the experiments are repeated, similar results are obtained. The nature of these results, however, depends upon the species, and they are, therefore, part of the specific character; they exhibit the same phenomena, again and again, and indicate certain fixed and invariable relations between the physiological peculiarities of the plant, and the influence of certain external agents. They afford no ground for questioning the instability of species, but rather the contrary; they present us with a cla.s.s of phenomena, which, when they are more thoroughly understood, may afford some of the best tests for identifying species, and proving that the attributes originally conferred endure so long as any issue of the original stock remains upon the earth.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

WHETHER SPECIES HAVE A REAL EXISTENCE IN NATURE--_continued_.

Limits of the variability of species--Species susceptible of modification may be altered greatly in a short time, and in a few generations; after which they remain stationary--The animals now subject to man had originally an apt.i.tude to domesticity--Acquired peculiarities which become hereditary have a close connexion with the habits or instincts of the species in a wild state--Some qualities in certain animals have been conferred with a view of their relation to man--Wild elephant domesticated in a few years, but its faculties incapable of further development.

_Variability of a species compared to that of an individual._--I endeavored, in the last chapter, to show, that a belief in the reality of species is not inconsistent with the idea of a considerable degree of variability in the specific character. This opinion, indeed, is little more than an extension of the idea which we must entertain of the ident.i.ty of an individual, throughout the changes which it is capable of undergoing.

If a quadruped, inhabiting a cold northern lat.i.tude, and covered with a warm coat of hair or wool, be transported to a southern climate, it will often, in the course of a few years, shed a considerable portion of its coat, which it gradually recovers on being again restored to its native country. Even there the same changes are, perhaps, superinduced to a certain extent by the return of winter and summer. We know that the Alpine hare (_Lepus variabilis_, Pal.) and the ermine, or stoat, (_Mustela erminea_, Linn.) become white during winter, and again obtain their full color during the warmer season; that the plumage of the ptarmigan undergoes a like metamorphosis in color and quant.i.ty, and that the change is equally temporary. We are aware that, if we reclaim some wild animal, and modify its habits and instincts by domestication, it may, if it escapes, become in a few years nearly as wild and untractable as ever; and if the same individual be again retaken, it may be reduced to its former tame state. A plant is sown in a prepared soil, in order that the petals of its flowers may multiply, and their color be heightened or changed: if we then withhold our care, the flowers of this same species become again single. In these, and innumerable other instances, we must suppose that the species was produced with a certain number of qualities; and, in the case of animals, with a variety of instincts, some of which may or may not be developed according to circ.u.mstances, or which, after having been called forth, may again become latent when the exciting causes are removed.

Now, the formation of races seems the necessary consequence of such a capability in species to vary, if it be a general law that the offspring should very closely resemble the parent. But, before we can infer that there are no limits to the deviation from an original type which may be brought about in the course of an indefinite number of generations, we ought to have some proof that, in each successive generation, individuals may go on acquiring an equal amount of new peculiarities, under the influence of equal changes of circ.u.mstances. The balance of evidence, however, inclines most decidedly on the opposite side; for in all cases we find that the quant.i.ty of divergence diminishes after a few generations in a very rapid ratio.

_Species susceptible of modification may be greatly altered in a few generations._--It cannot be objected, that it is out of our power to go on varying the circ.u.mstances in the same manner as might happen in the natural course of events during some great geological cycle. For in the first place, where a capacity is given to individuals to adapt themselves to new circ.u.mstances, it does not generally require a very long period for its development: if, indeed, such were the case, it is not easy to see how the modification would answer the ends proposed, for all the individuals would die before new qualities, habits, or instincts were conferred.

When we have succeeded in naturalizing some tropical plant in a temperate climate, nothing prevents us from attempting gradually to extend its distribution to higher lat.i.tudes, or to greater elevations above the level of the sea, allowing equal quant.i.ties of time, or an equal number of generations, for habituating the species to successive increments of cold. But every husbandman and gardener is aware that such experiments will fail; and we are more likely to succeed in making some plants, in the course of the first two generations, support a considerable degree of difference of temperature, than a very small difference afterwards, though we persevere for many centuries.

It is the same if we take any other cause instead of temperature; such as the quality of the food, or the kind of dangers to which an animal is exposed, or the soil in which a plant lives. The alteration in habits, form, or organization, is often rapid during a short period; but when the circ.u.mstances are made to vary farther, though in ever so slight a degree, all modification ceases, and the individual perishes. Thus some herbivorous quadrupeds may be made to feed partially on fish or flesh; but even these can never be taught to live on some herbs which they reject, and which would even poison them, although the same may be very nutritious to other species of the same natural order. So when man uses force or stratagem against wild animals, the persecuted race soon becomes more cautious, watchful, and cunning; new instincts seem often to be developed, and to become hereditary in the first two or three generations: but let the skill and address of man increase, however gradually, no farther variation can take place, no new qualities are elicited by the increasing dangers. The alteration of the habits of the species has reached a point beyond which no ulterior modification is possible, however indefinite the lapse of ages during which the new circ.u.mstances operate. Extirpation then follows, rather than such a transformation as could alone enable the species to perpetuate itself under the new state of things.

_Animals now subject to man had originally an apt.i.tude to domesticity._--It has been well observed by M. F. Cuvier and M. Dureau de la Malle, that unless some animals had manifested in a wild state an apt.i.tude to second the efforts of man, their domestication would never have been attempted. If they had all resembled the wolf, the fox, and the hyaena, the patience of the experimentalist would have been exhausted by innumerable failures before he at last succeeded in obtaining some imperfect results; so if the first advantages derived from the cultivation of plants had been elicited by as tedious and costly a process as that by which we now make some slight additional improvements in certain races, we should have remained to this day in ignorance of the greater number of their useful qualities.

_Acquired instincts of some animals become hereditary._--It is undoubtedly true, that many new habits and qualities have not only been acquired in recent times by certain races of dogs, but have been transmitted to their offspring. But in these cases it will be observed, that the new peculiarities have an intimate relation to the habits of the animal in a wild state, and therefore do not attest any tendency to a departure to an indefinite extent from the original type of the species. A race of dogs employed for hunting deer in the platform of Sante Fe, in Mexico, affords a beautiful ill.u.s.tration of a new hereditary instinct. The mode of attack, observes M. Roulin, which they employ consists in seizing the animal by the belly and overturning it by a sudden effort, taking advantage of the moment when the body of the deer rests only upon the fore-legs. The weight of the animal thus thrown over is often six times that of its antagonist. The dog of pure breed inherits a disposition to this kind of chase, and never attacks a deer from before while running. Even should the deer, not perceiving him, come directly upon him, the dog steps aside and makes his a.s.sault on the flank; whereas other hunting dogs, though of superior strength, and general sagacity, which are brought from Europe, are dest.i.tute of this instinct. For want of similar precautions, they are often killed by the deer on the spot, the vertebrae of their neck being dislocated by the violence of the shock.[817]

A new instinct has also become hereditary in a mongrel race of dogs employed by the inhabitants of the banks of the Magdalena almost exclusively in hunting the white-lipped pecari. The address of these dogs consists in restraining their ardor, and attaching themselves to no animal in particular, but keeping the whole herd in check. Now, among these dogs some are found, which the very first time they are taken to the woods, are acquainted with this mode of attack; whereas, a dog of another breed starts forward at once, is surrounded by the pecari, and, whatever may be his strength, is destroyed in a moment.

Some of our countrymen, engaged of late in conducting one of the princ.i.p.al mining a.s.sociations in Mexico, that of Real del Monte, carried out with them some English greyhounds of the best breed, to hunt the hares which abound in that country. The great platform which is the scene of sport is at an elevation of about nine thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the mercury in the barometer stands habitually at the height of about nineteen inches. It was found that the greyhounds could not support the fatigues of a long chase in this attenuated atmosphere, and before they could come up with their prey, they lay down gasping for breath; but these same animals have produced whelps which have grown up, and are not in the least degree incommoded by the want of density in the air, but run down the hares with as much ease as the fleetest of their race in this country.

The fixed and deliberate stand of the pointer has with propriety been regarded as a mere modification of a habit, which may have been useful to a wild race accustomed to wind game, and steal upon it by surprise, first pausing for an instant, in order to spring with unerring aim. The faculty of the retriever, however, may justly be regarded as more inexplicable and less easily referable to the instinctive pa.s.sions of the species. M. Majendie, says a French writer in a recently published memoir, having learnt that there was a race of dogs in England which stopped and brought back game of their own accord, procured a pair, and having obtained a whelp from them, kept it constantly under his eyes, until he had an opportunity of a.s.suring himself that, without having received any instruction, and on the very first day that it was carried to the chase, it brought back game with as much steadiness as dogs which had been schooled into the same manoeuvre by means of the whip and collar.

_Attributes of animals in their relation to man._--Such attainments, as well as the habits and dispositions which the shepherd's dog and many others inherit, seem to be of a nature and extent which we can hardly explain by supposing them to be modifications of instincts necessary for the preservation of the species in a wild state. When such remarkable habits appear in races of this species we may reasonably conjecture that they were given with no other view than for the use of man and the preservation of the dog, which thus obtains protection.

As a general rule, I fully agree with M. F. Cuvier, that, in studying the habits of animals, we must attempt, as far as possible, to refer their domestic qualities to modifications of instincts which are implanted in them in a state of nature; and that writer has successfully pointed out, in an admirable essay on the domestication of the mammalia[818], the true origin of many dispositions which are vulgarly attributed to the influence of education alone. But we should go too far if we did not admit that some of the qualities of particular animals and plants may have been given solely with a view to the connection which it was foreseen would exist between them and man--especially when we see that connexion to be in many cases so intimate, that the greater number, and sometimes, as in the case of the camel, all the individuals of the species which exist on the earth are in subjection to the human race.

We can perceive in a mult.i.tude of animals, especially in some of the parasitic tribes, that certain instincts and organs are conferred for the purpose of defence or attack against some other species. Now if we are reluctant to suppose the existence of similar relations between man and the instincts of many of the inferior animals, we adopt an hypothesis no less violent, though in the opposite extreme to that which has led some to imagine the whole animate and inanimate creation to have been made solely for the support, gratification, and instruction of mankind.

Many species, most hostile to our persons or property, multiply, in spite of our efforts to repress them; others, on the contrary, are intentionally augmented many hundred fold in number by our exertions. In such instances, we must imagine the relative resources of man, and of species friendly or inimical to him, to have been prospectively calculated and adjusted. To withhold a.s.sent to this supposition, would be to refuse what we must grant in respect to the economy of nature in every other part of the organic creation; for the various species of contemporary plants and animals have obviously their relative forces, nicely balanced, and their respective tastes, pa.s.sions, and instincts so contrived, that they are all in perfect harmony with each other. In no other manner could it happen that each species, surrounded, as it is, by countless dangers, should be enabled to maintain its ground for periods of considerable duration.

The docility of the individuals of some of our domestic species, extending, as it does, to attainments foreign to their natural habits and faculties, may, perhaps, have been conferred with a view to their a.s.sociation with man. But, lest species should be thereby made to vary indefinitely, we find that such habits are never transmissible by generation.

A pig has been trained to hunt and point game with great activity and steadiness[819]; and other learned individuals, of the same species, have been taught to spell; but such fortuitous acquirements never become hereditary, for they have no relation whatever to the exigencies of the animal in a wild state, and cannot, therefore, be developments of any instinctive propensities.

_Influence of domestication._--An animal in domesticity, says M. F.

Cuvier, is not essentially in a different situation, in regard to the feeling of restraint, from one left to itself. It lives in society without constraint, because, without doubt, it was a social animal; and it conforms itself to the will of man, because it had a chief, to which, in a wild state, it would have yielded obedience. There is nothing in its new situation that is not conformable to its propensities; it is satisfying its wants by submission to a master, and makes no sacrifice of its natural inclinations. All the social animals, when left to themselves, form herds more or less numerous; and all the individuals of the same herd know each other, are mutually attached, and will not allow a strange individual to join them. In a wild state, moreover, they obey some individual, which, by its superiority, has become the chief of the herd. Our domestic species had, originally, this sociability of disposition; and no solitary species, however easy it may be _to tame it_, has yet afforded true domestic races. We merely, therefore, develope, to our own advantage, propensities which propel the individuals of certain species to draw near to their fellows.

The sheep which we have reared is induced to follow us, as it would be led to follow the flock among which it was brought up; and, when individuals of gregarious species have been accustomed to one master, it is he alone whom they acknowledge as their chief--he only whom they obey. "The elephant allows himself to be directed only by the carnac whom he has adopted; the dog itself, reared in solitude with its master, manifests a hostile disposition towards all others; and every body knows how dangerous it is to be in the midst of a herd of cows, in pasturages that are little frequented, when they have not at their head the keeper who takes care of them.

"Every thing, therefore, tends to convince us, that formerly men were only with regard to the domestic animals, what those who are particularly charged with the care of them still are--namely, members of the society which these animals form among themselves; and, that they are only distinguished, in the general ma.s.s, by the authority which they have been enabled to a.s.sume from their superiority of intellect. Thus, every social animal which recognizes man as a member, and as the chief of its herd, is a domestic animal. It might even be said, that, from the moment when such an animal admits man as a member of its society, it is domesticated, as man could not enter into such society without becoming the chief of it."[820]

But the ingenious author whose observations I have here cited, admits that the obedience which the individuals of many domestic species yield indifferently to every person, is without a.n.a.logy in any state of things which could exist previously to their subjugation by man. Each troop of wild horses, it is true, has some stallion for its chief, who draws after him all the individuals of which the herd is composed; but when a domesticated horse has pa.s.sed from hand to hand, and has served several masters, he becomes equally docile towards _any person_, and is subjected to the whole human race. It seems fair to presume that the capability in the instinct of the horse to be thus modified, was given to enable the species to render greater services to man; and, perhaps, the facility with which many other acquired characters become hereditary in various races of the horse, may be explicable only on a like supposition. The amble, for example, a pace to which the domestic races in some parts of Spanish America are exclusively trained, has, in the course of several generations, become hereditary, and is a.s.sumed by all the young colts before they are broken in.[821]

It seems, also, reasonable to conclude, that the power bestowed on the horse, the dog, the ox, the sheep, the cat, and many species of domestic fowls, of supporting almost every climate, was given expressly to enable them to follow man throughout all parts of the globe, in order that we might obtain their services, and they our protection. If it be objected that the elephant which, by the union of strength, intelligence, and docility, can render the greatest services to mankind, is incapable of living in any but the warmest lat.i.tudes, we may observe that the quant.i.ty of vegetable food required by this quadruped would render its maintenance in the temperate zones too costly, and in the arctic impossible.

Among the changes superinduced by man, none appear, at first sight, more remarkable than the perfect tameness of certain domestic races. It is well known that, at however early an age we obtain possession of the young of many unreclaimed races, they will retain, throughout life, a considerable timidity and apprehensiveness of danger; whereas, after one or two generations, the descendants of the same stock will habitually place the most implicit confidence in man. There is good reason, however, to suspect that such changes are not without a.n.a.logy in a state of nature; or, to speak more correctly, in situations where man has not interfered.

We learn from Mr. Darwin, that in the Galapagos archipelago, placed directly under the equator, and nearly 600 miles west of the American continent, all the terrestrial birds, as the finches, doves, hawks, and others, are so tame, that they may be killed with a switch. One day, says this author, "a mocking bird alighted on the edge of a pitcher which I held in my hand, and began quietly to sip the water, and allowed me to lift it with the vessel from the ground." Yet formerly, when the first Europeans landed, and found no inhabitants in these islands, the birds were even tamer than now: already they are beginning to acquire that salutary dread of man which in countries long settled is natural even to young birds which have never received any injury. So in the Falkland Islands, both the birds and foxes are entirely without fear of man; whereas, in the adjoining mainland of South America, many of the same species of birds are extremely wild; for there they have for ages been persecuted by the natives.[822]

Dr. Richardson informs us, in his able history of the habits of the North American animals, that, "in the retired parts of the mountains where the hunters had seldom penetrated, there is no difficulty in approaching the Rocky Mountain sheep, which there exhibit _the simplicity of character so remarkable in the domestic species_; but where they have been often fired at, they are exceedingly wild, alarm their companions, on the approach of danger, by a hissing noise, and scale the rocks with a speed and agility that baffle pursuit."[823]

It is probable, therefore, that as man, in diffusing himself over the globe, has tamed many wild races, so, also, he has made many tame races wild. Had some of the larger carnivorous beasts, capable of scaling the rocks, made their way into the North American mountains before our hunters, a similar alteration in the instincts of the sheep would doubtless have been brought about.

_Wild elephants domesticated in a few years._--No animal affords a more striking ill.u.s.tration of the princ.i.p.al points which I have been endeavouring to establish than the elephant; for, in the first place, the wonderful sagacity with which he accommodates himself to the society of man, and the new habits which he contracts, are not the result of time, nor of modifications produced in the course of many generations.

These animals will breed in captivity, as is now ascertained, in opposition to the vulgar opinion of many modern naturalists, and in conformity to that of the ancients aelian and Columella[824]: yet it has always been the custom, as the least expensive mode of obtaining them, to capture wild individuals in the forests, usually when full grown; and, in a few years after they are taken--sometimes, it is said, in the s.p.a.ce of a few months--their education is completed.

Had the whole species been domesticated from an early period in the history of man, like the camel, their superior intelligence would, doubtless, have been attributed to their long and familiar intercourse with the lord of the creation; but we know that a few years is sufficient to bring about this wonderful change of habits; and although the same individual may continue to receive tuition for a century afterwards, yet it makes no farther progress in the general development of its faculties. Were it otherwise, indeed, the animal would soon deserve more than the poet's epithet of "half-reasoning."

From the authority of our countrymen employed in the late Burmese war, it appears, in corroboration of older accounts, that when elephants are required to execute extraordinary tasks, they may be made to understand that they will receive unusual rewards. Some favourite dainty is shown to them, in the hope of acquiring which the work is done; and so perfectly does the nature of the contract appear to be understood, that the breach of it, on the part of the master, is often attended with danger. In this case, a power has been given to the species to adapt their social instincts to new circ.u.mstances with surprising rapidity; but the extent of this change is defined by strict and arbitrary limits.

There is no indication of a tendency to continued divergence from certain attributes with which the elephant was originally endued--no ground whatever for antic.i.p.ating that, in thousands of centuries, any material alteration could ever be effected. All that we can infer from a.n.a.logy is, that some more useful and peculiar races might probably be formed, if the experiment were fairly tried; and that some individual characteristic, now only casual and temporary, might be perpetuated by generation.

In all cases, therefore, where the domestic qualities exist in animals, they seem to require no lengthened process for their developement; and they appear to have been wholly denied to some cla.s.ses, which, from their strength and social disposition, might have rendered great services to man; as, for example, the greater part of the quadrumana.

The orang-outang, indeed, which, for its resemblance in form to man, and apparently for no other good reason, has been a.s.sumed by Lamarck to be the most perfect of the inferior animals, has been tamed by the savages of Borneo, and made to climb lofty trees, and to bring down the fruit.

But he is said to yield to his masters an unwilling obedience, and to be held in subjection only by severe discipline. We know nothing of the faculties of this animal which can suggest the idea that it rivals the elephant in intelligence; much less anything which can countenance the dreams of those who have fancied that it might have been trans.m.u.ted into the "dominant race." One of the baboons of Sumatra (_Simia carpolegus_) appears to be more docile, and is frequently trained by the inhabitants to ascend trees, for the purpose of gathering cocoa-nuts; a service in which the animal is very expert. He selects, says Sir Stamford Raffles, the ripe nuts, with great judgment, and pulls no more than he is ordered.[825] The capuchin and cacajao monkeys are, according to Humboldt, taught to ascend trees in the same manner, and to throw down fruit on the banks of the lower Orinoco.[826]

It is for the Lamarckians to explain how it happens that those same savages of Borneo have not themselves acquired, by dint of longing, for many generations, for the power of climbing trees, the elongated arms of the ourang, or even the prehensile tails of some American monkeys: Instead of being reduced to the necessity of subjugating stubborn and untractable brutes, we should naturally have antic.i.p.ated "that their wants would have excited them to efforts, and that continued efforts would have given rise to new organs;" or rather to the re-acquisition of organs which, in a manner irreconcileable with the principle of the _progressive_ system, have grown obsolete in tribes of men which have such constant need of them.