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.