Domesticated animals : $b Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilizationShaler, Nathaniel Southgate
History
Domesticated animals : $b Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization
Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate
Domestic animals
It seems likely that at the present time we have acquired from the
wilderness nearly all the animals which are capable of adoption by
such brief and individual experiments as have won to us the species
which constitute our flocks and herds. Our future gains will have to
be made by far more deliberate and continuous endeavors. These tasks
of the hereafter will have to be undertaken in a way which will insure
a continuity of effort such as can only be attained by permanently
organized associations which may continue their essays if needs be for
centuries. The work should be done with two distinct ends in view:
first, to determine what members of the wilderness life may be made
to contribute to the needs of man; and, second, how far it is possible
so to develop the intelligence of the lower animals in general as to
make them better fitted for companionship with our kind. This
last-named line of experiments needs to be undertaken not only with
reference to varieties now wild, but also upon our most domesticated
forms, for, as before remarked, we have not begun to explore the
possibilities of intellectual gain, even in those species which have
been the longest associated with us.
In considering a list of the creatures which might well be made the
subjects of trial with a view to their domestication, we find ourselves
at once embarrassed by the exceeding wealth of our opportunities. It is
impossible within the limits of this article to treat, even in the
catalogue way, a vast number of forms which commend themselves for
experiment. Something of the richness of the field, however, may be
judged by noting some of the more conspicuous forms, as we shall now
proceed to do. Beginning with the insects, the lowest forms in the
animal series which have proved in any sense domesticable, we note that
wide as is this realm of life it offers but few opportunities such as
the domesticator seeks. Of the million or more species in the group,
only two, the honey-bee and the silkworm, have been won to man's use,
and there is not another wild form which the naturalist can suggest as
likely to prove a valuable captive. The only use which we are probably
to find for these creatures is where, by some form of culture, we may
induce predatory or parasitic species more effectively to do their
destructive work on noxious forms of the class. So well fitted is this
group for purposes of self-defence that however much man may interfere
with the course of nature, he is not likely to sweep any of their
multitudinous kinds from the earth, though experience clearly shows that
by the methods above mentioned they may be greatly reduced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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