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 has been found in the buried city of Herculaneum. Rütimeyer has made the remarkable discovery that there lived contemporaneously in Switzerland, during the later Stone or Neolithic period, two domesticated forms, the _S. scrofa_, and {68} 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. Indica_ 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.[148] 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 this conclusion; and Rütimeyer himself seems now to feel some doubt. As the Torfschwein was domesticated at so early a period, and as its remains have been found in several parts of Europe, belonging to various historic and prehistoric ages,[149] and as closely allied forms still exist in Hungary and on the shores of the Mediterranean, one is led to suspect that the wild _S. Indica_ formerly ranged from Europe to China, in the same manner as _S. scrofa_ now ranges from Europe to Hindostan. Or, as Rütimeyer apparently suspects, a third allied species may formerly have lived in Europe and Eastern Asia.