Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 3, September 1852 — John Shaqi
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 3, September 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 3, September 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
and has acquired the name of wool, to the long, flowing, and glossy
locks of the Esquimaux, between which there are many gradations.
Precisely parallel varieties are ascertained to arise in the same race
of animals. Those of the domestic kind “vary from each other in size
much more than individuals the most different in stature among mankind.”
The small Welsh cattle compared with the large flocks of the southern
counties in England; or the Shetland ponies with the tall-backed mares
of Flanders; the bantam breed with the large English fowls, are well
known examples. More striking instances are mentioned by naturalists. In
the isles of the Celebes, a race of buffaloes is said to exist, which is
of the size of a common sheep; and Pennant has described a variety of
the horse in Ceylon, not more than thirty inches in height. The swine of
Cuba, imported into that island from Europe, have become double the
height and magnitude of the stock from which they were derived. The
disproportionate arm of the Negro and leg of the Hindoo meet an exact
parallel in the swine of Normandy, the hind-quarters of which are so out
of keeping with the fore, that the back forms an inclined plane to the
head; and as the head itself partakes of the same direction, the snout
is but a little removed from the ground. Among domesticated animals, no
species afford more striking specimens of modification in structure than
the hog tribe. The external forms which the race has assumed surpass in
monstrosity the most extraordinary diversities of the human frame.
“Swine,” observes Blumenbach, “in some countries have degenerated into
races which, in singularity, far exceed every thing that has been found
strange in bodily variety among the human race. Swine with solid hoofs
were known to the ancients, and large breeds of them are found in
Hungary and Sweden. In like manner the European swine first carried by
the Spaniards in 1509 to the island of Cuba—at that time celebrated for
its pearl-fishery—degenerated into a monstrous race, with toes that
were half a span in length.” The texture of the skin of several species
of animals is different in a wild and in a domesticated condition; and
the character of the hair exhibits analogous variations to that of the
tribes of mankind. In the instance of a neglected flock of sheep, the
fine wool is soon succeeded by a coarser kind, and the breed
approximates to the argali, or wild sheep of Siberia, the original
stock, which are covered with hair. The covering of the goat and dog
displays the same variety. Thus, the several external distinctions from
each other which the nations of men develop, must be admitted to be
plainly compatible with their forming a single species, when
distinctions of a parallel nature, but more numerous and singular, have
arisen within the limits of a species in the inferior animal creation.
It may be difficult, nay impossible, to explain the phenomena of
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