It has often been assumed that man has chosen for domestication animals and
plants having an extraordinary inherent tendency to vary, and likewise to
withstand diverse climates. I do not dispute that these capacities have
added largely to the value of most of our domesticated productions; but how
could a savage possibly know, when he first tamed an animal, whether it
would vary in succeeding generations, and whether it would endure other
climates? Has the little variability of the ass and goose, or the small
power of endurance of warmth by the reindeer, or of cold by the common
camel, prevented their domestication? I cannot doubt that if other animals
and plants, equal in number to our domesticated productions, and belonging
to equally diverse classes and countries, were taken from a state of
nature, and could be made to breed for an equal number of generations under
domestication, they would on an average vary as largely as the parent
species of our existing domesticated productions have varied.
In the case of most of our anciently domesticated animals and plants, it is
not possible to come to any definite conclusion, whether they are descended
from one or several wild species. The argument mainly relied on by those
who believe in the multiple origin of our domestic animals is, that we find
in the most ancient times, on the monuments of Egypt, and in the lake-
habitations of Switzerland, much diversity in the breeds; and that some of
these ancient breeds closely resemble, or are even identical with, those
still existing.
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