s of the lands in which that race has dwelt.

It is a remarkable fact that no sooner does a wild animal or plant
become intimately associated with man, than it at once departs more or
less widely from its ancient type. Our conquests from the vegetable
world have to a great extent so far lost their original character that
we can no longer determine the species from which they sprang. Botanists
cannot find the wild forms which have given us the cabbage, wheat, and
most other small grains, and a host of other important varieties. So,
too, the origin of our dogs is as yet unsolved and bids fair ever to
remain a mystery. In addition to this changed character which we observe
in the forms of domesticated animals and plants alike, we note that the
mental characteristics of the former undergo vast alterations. The
creatures, in a way, take the tone of civilization, and to a great
extent abandon those ancient habits of fear and rage which were
essential to their life in the wilderness. The intellectual condition of
our dogs shows us that the creatures may be progressively educated--in a
word, that man may put into them something of his human quality. In the
case of the dog, the longest possessed and most familiar to our
households of all our captives, the mental change which has come, partly
by selection, from association with man has gone so far that the species
may be fairly said to have replaced its pristine motives with those
which it has derived from ourselves. In many cases it has become, so far
as its ways are concerned, even more man than dog.

Although the physical and mental educability of animals when brought
into companionship with man is an old subject of remark, and one of the
most interesting features which they exhibit, it was not until the
doctrine of descent by variation of species from other related forms
became established, that we had a chance to see the vast possibilities
of accomplishment which are presented to us by our domesticated
creatures. It is true that the breeder's art is old and that men have
felt the subjugated animals to be almost like clay in the potter's
hands, but except in a small and rather careless way with the dogs,
little attention has been given to the development of the intelligence
of these captives. The success which we have obtained with this animal
has been accomplished by a selective process, but one which has been
almost as blind in its operation as the choice which acts in the