d spaniel; or for the swiftness of his
foot, as the greyhound; or for his swimming in the water, or for drawing
snow-sledges, as the rough-haired dogs of the north; or lastly, as a
play-dog for children, as the lap-dog; with the changes of the forms of the
cattle, which have been domesticated from the greatest antiquity, as
camels, and sheep; which have undergone so total a transformation, that we
are now ignorant from what species of wild animals they had their origin.
Add to these the great changes of shape and colour, which we daily see
produced in smaller animals from our domestication of them, as rabbits, or
pigeons; or from the difference of climates and even of seasons; thus the
sheep of warm climates are covered with hair instead of wool; and the hares
and partridges of the latitudes, which are long buried in snow, become
white during the winter months; add to these the various changes produced
in the forms of mankind, by their early modes of exertion; or by the
diseases occasioned by their habits of life; both of which became
hereditary, and that through many generations. Those who labour at the
anvil, the oar, or the loom, as well as those who carry sedan-chairs, or
who have been educated to dance upon the rope, are distinguishable by the
shape of their limbs; and the diseases occasioned by intoxication deform
the countenance with leprous eruptions, or the body with tumid viscera, or
the joints with knots and distortions.

Thirdly, when we enumerate the great changes produced in the species of
animals before their nativity; these are such as resemble the form or
colour of their parents, which have been altered by the cultivation or
accidents above related, and are thus continued to their posterity. Or they
are changes produced by the mixture of species as in mules; or changes
produced probably by the exuberance of nourishment supplied to the fetus,
as in monstrous births with additional limbs; many of these enormities of
shape are propagated, and continued as a variety at least, if not as a new
species of animal. I have seen a breed of cats with an additional claw on
every foot; of poultry also with an additional claw, and with wings to
their feet; and of others without rumps. Mr. Buffon mentions a breed of
dogs without tails, which are common at Rome and at Naples, which he
supposes to have been produced by a custom long established of cutting
their tails close off. There are many kinds of pigeons, admired for