In an interesting lecture delivered last week at the London
Institution, on the history of the domestication of animals, Pro- fessor Rolleston gave it as his opinion that mammals were domesticated long before birds ; and that of the mammals, the dog was the first domesticated, the pig the second, and the ox the third,—in other words, that the first animal domesticated was domesticated as an ally of the hunter, the second for purposes of food, and the third as a beast of burden, though one which was afterwards found more useful for purposes of food when his place as a beast of burden had been supplied by the horse. Professor Rolleston said that it was difficult to conceive how man could have made any pro- gress in civilisation till he had got trained animals to help him in hunting and carrying,—so that the utilisation and discipline by man of the predatory instincts of lower animals, is con- ceived by Professor ltolleston as the first step for man towards a life higher than the predatory life. In other words, the delegation of your own least noble work to a creature much less capable than yourself of any higher kind of work, is the first step towards the deliberate encouragement of your own higher habits. That is a principle worth remembering. We only wish that the divi- sion of labour was more frequently regulated by it at higher levels. In point of fact, it is far more often regulated by hereditary customs than by intrinsic aptitudes.
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