The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-05-27
Prof. Huxley ON Dogs.

In his second lecture on dogs at the
Royal Instit ution i'm Iondon,a Prof.
Huxley Considered the problem of the
origin Of the domestic dog.-He thought
they could see theirsway to solving it if
they began upon saIid basis of fact
Such 2 basis ofsfact was supplied by
what they knew of the origin of dogs in
North America, The Indians Of the
northwestern parts of Amer lea were all
in possession of ha ah-tamefcur-l ike dogs,
living iula the same. way as the dogs in
Egypt-in asemi-independent condition.
In the same country there existed a wild
animal-t CAMS ldfrdns, or prairie
wolf. TWAS impossible top int out anv
distinctions between these prairie wolves
and the domes sicated dag OF the Indians.
II was somewhat difficult to understand
how these wild and fierce animals could
be tanned and yet, when one knew their
wolves and siackals, although eredaeieus
and hercey werezeadowed with siagular
curiosityS that clriesity directed them
toward man "a % and his doings,,, There was
not one OF these animals which, If
caught young whether iackaI Of small
wolf couIa not be tanned and. made as
attached and dsdevoted toam an as any. or
dinary dogo It.was MOI difficult to, Tn
derstand, therefore, how these animals
became acquainted with man, how they
became trained, and how from them
sprang a race of domesticateJ animals
which curiously enough, were far more
attached to their masters and the ami
mails with who they are brought up
than to members, OF their own family.
# they could depend upon the fact that
this one domestic dog originated IN the
tanning ofsan indigenons wild animal,
4heas the general problem Of the orig D
If domestic dogs. would take tn form
they find in all parts, Of the
world in which dom site dogs were
known wild stock go similar osthe exist
ing raeeof dogs that there was nothing
unnatural in supposing, that they had
the same scrigin,s as. the sIndiaa dogs.
They might trace dag-like animals fur
ther and further west, until, in Norts ern
Africa, they had a whole series of kinds
Of dog -lik q animals usually known as
the Jackals. He I believed, that these
wild stocks were the, source from which,
in each case. the sayages who. originally
began to tame dogs had derived their
SVoGA. Auls view WAS tCOHHIm6u DIV
archaeological researches. They had
prese rived to them, on5 the lnonuments
OF Aneient Egypt,oa great variety of
forms if dogs, and it was significant
that the, further back they were the
fewer were the vafis ties, until, at t'the
time ofthe third and fourth dy nasties--
that is about 6 600 years ago-there were
only two well marked forms dogs.
One of them was q, compare. lively small
cur7ike dog, SINH ar to that which was
seen in the streets of Cairo at the pr &
entrday, and the other was like igfeys
hound .EsThe cur was no doubt, a. tame
species of the wild .laekal, aad was still
to BE found in the .sa me, country; and,
with respect to the grey hound, there was
in Abyssibia very long headed dog,
which was very much of the same form
as the greyhound, and which, ie could
hardly bs doubted. was the source from
which it sprang, A ssunning that there
was no, doubt that the origin of dogs
could be traced to these fo1rces, the
more modified forms Of the domestic
animal we're simply the result of the Sc,
|@ected breeding, which had given rise to
the same mod difcation in, dogs as it had
done in the case Of pigeons. sz~se.sys