largely crossed with this form. Pigs of this type have existed during a long period on the shores of the Mediterranean, for a figure (‘Schweineschädel’ s. 142) closely resembling the existing Neapolitan pig was found in the buried city of Herculaneum. Rütimeyer has made the remarkable discovery that there lived contemporaneously in Switzerland, during the Neolithic period, two domesticated forms, the _S. scrofa,_ and the _S. scrofa palustris_ or Torfschwein. Rütimeyer perceived that the latter approached the Eastern breeds, and, according to Nathusius, it certainly belongs to the _S. indicus_ group; but Rütimeyer has subsequently shown that it differs in some well-marked characters. This author was formerly convinced that his Torfschwein existed as a wild animal during the first part of the Stone period, and was domesticated during a later part of the same period.[5] Nathusius, whilst he fully admits the curious fact first observed by Rütimeyer, that the bones of domesticated and wild animals can be distinguished by their different aspect, yet, from special difficulties in the case of the bones of the pig (‘Schweineschädel’ s. 147), is not convinced of the truth of the above conclusion; and Rütimeyer himself seems now to feel some doubt. Other naturalists have also argued strongly on the same side as Nathusius.[6] Several breeds, differing in the proportions of the body, in the length of the ears, in the nature of the hair, in colour, etc., come under the _S. indicus_ type. Nor is this surprising, considering how ancient the domestication of this form has been both in Europe and in China. In this latter country the date is believed by an eminent Chinese scholar[7] to go back at least 4900 years from the present time. This same scholar alludes to the existence of many local varieties of the pig in China; and at the present time the Chinese take extraordinary pains in feeding and tending their pigs, not even allowing them to walk from place to place.[8] Hence these pigs, as Nathusius has remarked,[9] display in an eminent degree the characters of a highly-cultivated race, and hence, no doubt, their high value in the improvement of our European breeds. Nathusius makes a remarkable statement (‘Schweineschädel’ s. 138), that the infusion of the 1/32nd, or even of the 1/64th, part of the blood of _S. indicus_ into a breed of _S. scrofa,_ is sufficient plainly to modify the skull of the latter species. This singular fact may perhaps be accounted for by several of the chief distinctive characters of _S. indicus,_ such as the shortness of the lachrymal bones, etc., being common to several species of the genus; for in crosses characters which are common to many species apparently tend to be prepotent over those appertaining to only a few species.