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time; I mean within a very few generations. That this is the effect of a difference of climate and aliment, is easy to conceive and, in length of time, the influence of thefe two caufes muft render fuch animals exempt from, or fufceptible of certain affections and diftempers. Their temperament muft gradually alter; the formation, which partly depends on the aliment, and partly on the quality of the juices, muft alfo undergo a change in the fucceffion of a few generations. This change in the firft generation is almoft imperceptible, as the two animals, the male and female, which we fuppofe to be the progenitors of the fpecies, had obtained their full fhape and conftitution before they were brought from their native country and that however a new climate and food may change their temperament, they cannot act on the folid and organical parts, fo as to alter their fhape; efpecially if they had attained their full growth: confequently, in the first generation, there will be no difadvantageous change; no degeneracy in the first production of thefe animals; the impreffion of the model will be exact. At the infant of their birth, there will be no radical defect; but the young animal, during its weak and tender ftate, will feel the influences of the climate. They will make other different impreffions. on him, than they did on his full-grown fire and dam. Thofe of the aliment will be much greater, and act on the organical parts during their growth, fo as to vitiate a little the original form, and produce germs of imperfections, which will very fenfibly appear in a fecond generation, when the parent, befides its own defects, I mean those it derives from its growth, has alfo the defects of the fecond generation, which will be then more ftrongly marked and at the third generation, the defects of the fecond and third ftock, caufed by the influence of the climate and aliment, being again combined with thofe of the prefent influence in the growth, will become fo palpable, as to obliterate the marks of the original ftock; fo that these animals of foreign extraction will have nothing foreign in them, but be exactly fimilar to the natives. Spanish or Barb-Horses, whofe breed are thus managed in France, very often at the fecond, and always at the third, become fo entirely French horfes, that, inftead of preferving the breed, there is a neceffity of croffing and renewing it at every generation, by importing Barb and Spanish horfes for the ufe of native mares. And it is very remarkable, that this manner of renewing the breed, which is only in part, or as it were by halves, has a much better effe&t than if the renovation was total. A horse and mare of Spain will not, in France, produce fuch fine

horfes

horfes as a Spanish stallion with a mare of the country. This, however, will be cafily comprehended, if we confider, that when a stallion and mare of different countries are pur together, the defects of both are compenfated. Every climate, by its own influences, and thofe of the food, impares a certain conformation, which is faulty through fome excefs or defect. But in a hot climate there will be an excess of fire, in a cold climate there will be a defect, and vice verfä. So that, by joining animals of thefe oppofite climates, the excels of the one fupplies the defects of the other. And as that reaches nearest to perfection in nature, which has the fewest faults, and the moft perfect forms being only fuch as have the fewest deformities, the produce of two animals, whofe defects are exactly balanced, will be the most perfect production of that kind. And this equality is the most accurately adjusted, the more diftant the countries are, or rather the more oppofite the climates natural to the two animals are to each other. The compound refult is the more perfect, as the exceffes or defects of the ftallion's conftitution are more opporite to the exceffes and defects of the mare."

These obfervations of our author fufficiently fhew, that the long pedigrees of horfes, difplayed with fo much oftentation, prove the very reverfe of what they are intended to prove; for it is evident, that the farther any horfe is removed from the first production between a foreign ftallion and a native mare, so much greater its defects will be; and confequently, a horse will be better in proportion to the fhortnefs of his pedigree. A great variety of other remarks, equally ufeful and entertaining, are interspersed in the natural hiftory of the horse, and which are therefore recommended to the perufal of every lover of that generous animal.

In the natural history of the Afs, M. de Buffon has difcuffed one of the moft curious queftions in natural history, namely, the degeneration of animals. He afks, whether the horfe and the afs are originated from the fame ftock, or whether they are not and have not ever becn different animals? This curious queftion he has anfwered, by confidering nature in a new point of view. He very juftly obferves, that thofe animals which produce together individuals capable of producing others, are of the fame fpecies, while thofe that produce together only fuch individuals as are defective and barren, are of different fpecies. And as the mule, produced between the horfe and the afs, is not capable of propagation, these two animals are of different fpecies.

In the natural history of the Ox, M. de Buffon has advanced a philofophical hypothesis, which feems to deserve attention, as it tends to elucidate the courfe of nature with regard to the food of different animals; and as the thought is new, we shall infert it for the fatisfaction of the reader.

"The furface of the earth," fays this ingenious naturalift, "decked in its verdure, is the inexhauftible and common fource from whence man and beaft derive their fubfiftence: whatever lives in nature, lives on, what vegetates; and vegetables, in their turn, live on whatever has lived and vegetated. It is impoffible to live without deftroying; and indeed it is only by the deftruction of beings that animals can fubfift themfelves, and propagate their fpecies. God, in creating the first individual of each fpecies of animal and vegetable, has not only given a form to the duft of the earth, But has rendered it living and animated, by inclofing in each individual a greater or leffer quantity of active principles, of organical moleculæ, living, indiftructible, and common to all organised beings. Thefe moleculæ pafs from body to body, and equally contribute to prefent life, and the continuation of life, to the nutrition and growth of each individual; and after the diffolution of the body, after it is reduced to afhes, thefe organical moleculæ, on which death has no power, furvive, circulate in the universe, and pass into other beings, bringing with them nourishment and life. Thus every production, every renovation, every increment by generation, by nutrition, by development, fuppoles a preceding deftruction, a converfion of fubftance, an acceffion of thofe organical molecule, which do not multiply, but ever fubfifting in an equal number, render nature always equally full of life, the earth equally peopled, and equally fhining in the original glory conferred on it by its Creator.

"Confidering therefore beings in general, the total of the quantity of life is perpetually the fame; and however death may appear to destroy every thing, it deftroys no part of that primitive life which is common to all organized beings: death, like all other fubordinate and fubaltern powers, attacks only individuals, ftrikes only the furface, deftroys only the form; he makes no impreffion on the fubftance, and, instead of injuring nature, caufes it to fhine with greater luftre by his depredations. If nature permits death to cut down individuals, and, in procefs of time, to destroy them, in order to fhow her fuperiority to death and time, to exercife her everactive power, manifeft har fulness by her fecundity, and to

make

make of the univerfe, by the reproduction and renewal o beings, a theatre ever crowded, a fpectacle ever new yet fhe never permits death to annihilate the fpecies.

"That beings may fucceed each other, it is neceffary that there be a deftruction among them; in order to the nourishment and fubfiftence of animals, they deftroy vegetables or other animals, and the quantity of life continuing ever the fame, after as well as before the deftruction, it feems to be indifferent to nature, how much fuch or such a fpecies is deftroyed; yet, like a provident mother, in the midst of her inexhauftible abundance, fhe has limited the expence, and prevented any wafte, by implanting the carnivorous instinct in very few animals; and even these voracious fpecies fhe has reduced to a fmall number of individuals, multiplying, at the fame time, both the fpecies and individuals of thofe which feed on herbage; and, in vegetables, fhe feems to have been profufe, both with regard to the number and fertility of the fpecies. Perhaps man has not a little. contributed to fecond her views, with regard to maintaining, and even establishing, this order upon earth; for in the fea that indifference, we fuppofed above, is confpicuous; all fpecies there being more or lefs voracious, living on themfelves or others. They are perpetually preying on, without ever deftroying, each other; because the fecundity is equal to the depredation, and the whole confumption increases the reproduction.

"Man is known to exercife his power over the creatures in a lord-like manner; thofe, whofe flesh pleafes his tafte, he has felected, made them domeftic flaves, multiplied them beyond what nature would herfelf have done, formed of them numerous herds and flocks, and, by his care to bring them into being, he feems to be entitled to the power of flaying them for his ufe; but this power, this right, he extends far beyond his wants: for, exclufive of thofe fpecies which he has tamed, and difpofs of at pleasure, he also makes war on the wild creatures, birds, and filhes. Inftead of confining himfelf to thofe of the climate in which he lives, he travels far from home, he even vifits the feas for new dainties, and all nature feems hardly fufficient to fatisfy his intemperance, and the inconftant variety of his appetites. Man confumes, he alone fwallows, more flesh than all the beafts together deyour; thus is he the greatest destroyer, and even more from wantonnefs than neceffity. Instead of enjoying, with moderation, the good things within his power; instead of liberally diftributing them, inftead of repairing when he destroys,

and

and renewing when he annihilates, the man of fubftance places his whole glory in confuming; he prides himself in deftroying more in one day, at his table, than would afford a comfortable fubfifonce to teveral families. Thus he exercises his tyrannical power equally over animals and men; others pining with hunger and toil, only to fatisfy the immoderate appetite, and the ftill more infatiable vanity of this man; who, while he is deftroying others by want, is destroying himfelf by his exceffos.

"Yet man, like the beafts, might live on vegetables; for flesh, however analagous it may be to flesh, does not afford better nourishment than grain, pulfe, or bread. True nourifament, that which contributes to the nutrition, the growth, and the fubfiftance, is not that inanimate matter which feems to conftitute the texture of the flesh or the herb, but the organical molecule contained in the one or the other; as the ox, which feeds on grafs, acquires as much flesh as man, or any other carnivorous animal. The only real difference between aliments is this, that an equal quantity of flefh, corn, and grain, contains many more organical moleculæ than grafs, the leaves, roots, and other parts of vegetables, as we have afcertained from infufions made with these different fubftances: fo that man, and thofe beafts whose ftomachs and inteftines are not of a capacity to receive a very large quantity of aliments, could not hold a fufficiency of grafs to furnish the quantity of organical moleculæ neceflary to their nutrition. And it is on this account, that man and the other animals, which have but one ftomach, can only fubfift on Acíh or corn, which contain, in a small volume, a very large quantity of the nutritious organical molecule; but the ox, and other ruminating animals, which have feveral ftomachs, particularly one very large, and which will confequently contain a large volume of grafs, find it fufficient to furnish the neceffary quantity of organical molecula for their nourishment, growth, and multiplication. Here the quantity compenfates for the quality of the nourishment, which, in effect, is the fame; it is the fame fubftance, thefame organical molecule, by which the ox, man, and all animals are nourifhed."

It would extend this article far beyond the bounds allotted it, to enumerate the many curious remarks contained in this treatife; we are therefore perfuaded that the reader, if he has any tafte for natural hiftory, or any regard for, or intereft in, the animals defcribed in this work, will thank us for recommending it to his perufal.

Conclufion

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