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 worth while for our associations of dog fanciers to undertake
to develop varieties of dogs solely with reference to the intellectual
qualities of the animal. I venture to suggest that those who seek this
end should select some of the primitive types of form, such as are
found among the undifferentiated mass of the species, those which are
improperly termed mongrels, and this for the reason that among these
unselected creatures the intelligence is quicker and more varied than
it is in the highly developed varieties. Under skilful trainers the
successive generations bred in the experimental station should be
subjected to tests which will indicate the measure of intellectual
ability. The results already attained by the unconscious selection
which man has applied serve to indicate that at the end of a century,
and perhaps in much less time, we might develop an animal which in
various ways would come to a closer intellectual relation with man than
any other lower species has attained.
Cats deserve some mention for the reason, that, while they are the least
essential, and on the whole the least interesting, of domesticated
animals, they have had a certain place in civilization. They afford,
moreover, a capital foil by which to set off the virtues of the dog.
Nowhere else, indeed, among the creatures which are intimately
associated with men, do we find two related forms which afford, along
with a certain likeness, such great diversities of quality.
We know nothing as to the time when the cat first found its way to the
associations of man. Presumably this period was much later than the
advent of the dog into the human family. The presumption rests upon the
fact that while the dog does not demand fixed residence as a condition
of its fealty, but is at home wherever his master is, the cat is the
creature of the domicile, caring more indeed for its dwelling-place than
it ever does for the inmates thereof. In a word, the creature must have
come to us after our forefathers gave up the nomadic life.
Nevertheless, the association is very ancient; it has endured in Egypt
at least for a term of several thousand years.
Among the curious features connected with the association of the cat
with man, we may note that it is the only animal which has been
tolerated, esteemed, and at times worshipped, without having a
single distinctly valuable quality. It is, in a small way,
serviceable in keeping down the excessive development of small
rodents, which from the beginning have been the self-invited guests
of man. As it is in a certain indifferent way sympathetic, and by
its caresses appears to indicate affection, it has awakened a
measure of sympathy which it hardly deserves. I have been unable to
find any authentic instances which go to show the existence in cats
of any real love for their masters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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