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Show DISSERT. IV. ~ ... II I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. And if we take fron• this number the fpecics which are common to both ontinent , w~,; D1all hardly find, he fclys, forty fpecies of quadrupeds properly American. • rom thefe premifes he.: infers that in America there has been a great 1i arcity of matter (a). But why would be take frof!l the feventy fpecies of quadrupeds Amcric.a has, thofe thirty which are common to both continents, as they, from their very ancient habitation in thofe countries, are as mu h American as the others? Betides, if thofe ani1nals1 , which he calls properly American, had been created originally in America, with greater thew of probability he might have aHirmed the fuppofed fcarcity of matter in that part of the world. But all bea,fts having been Afiatic i11 their origin, as be himJelf confeffes, we do not fee h'is grounds for drawing fuch a conclufion. " Every animal," fays Buffon, " when abandoned to its own inftincr, feeks a zone and a region adapted to its nature (b)." Hence the caufe of the fmall number of fpecies of quadrupeds in America; bccaufe, upon fuppofition that animals after the deluge, when abandoned to their own inftinet, fought a zone and a region fuitable to their natures, and found it in the countries of the 4:>ld continent, they had no occafion to make fo long a journey as to America : if the animals, inil:ead of being fcwed on the mountains of Armenia, had been collecl:ed on the American Alps, by the f<nne way of reafoning, the number of fpecies of quadruped3 in the old continent would pa\le peen lefs, and the American philofopher would have been liable _to cep(.ure, who, from fuch a!) incident, would have endeavoured to ~nf~r the prodigious fcarCity of matter, and b~t'fen niggard fky of tha.t which we call, the old continent. B~t~t ~]though all thofe quadrJpeds were aCtually original in America, we pught not from ,thence to infer the fuppofcd fcarcity of matter, Jheca..ufe .a country cannot be faid to have a fcarcity of matter which has the number pf fpes:ies of its quadrup~ds proportioned to its extent. The extent of America is the third part of the whole earth, therefore it Ca!fnot ):>e (aid that there is a fcarcity of matter there when it has a third part o.f all the fpecies of quadrupeds. The fpecies of quadrupeds, accordmg to Buffon, are two hun.dred, of which America has («) Hifr. Nat. tom, "~iii. ~b) Ibid. tom. xxi:x, feventy, H I' S T 0 'R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. feventy, which is fomething ·more than a third; it cannot therefore be faid that there is a fcarcity of.matter there. Hitherto we have reafon~ci on the fuppofition that what Mr. Buffon has f~id wns true witH refpeet to the number of fpccies of quadrupeds ; ', ~ut who is certain of this, as rhc real diftlnguifhing chamctcr of fpec1es has not yet been ciifcovered? Mr. Bufton, as well as f<.:veral other naturalill:s who have written aft<::r him, Lelievc, th::u the fole indubitable proof of the fpccific difference of two animals, fimilar to each other i11 many circmnll:ances ·and propcrtie is, that of the male not ~eing able to .co~e~ the fema1e, and of producing by means of gcneratton another tndtvJdual that is fruitful and fimilar to them[elves. But this proof of diverllty of fpecies, befides that it fails in fome animals, is, with refpcet to others, very diDicult to be determined. To lhew the incert~inty of it, let us put an nfs and a mare together, a~1d a mafiiff a?d a ~reyhound together, two breeds of dogs C:Jf.~r mely_ dtfferent. from th1s iafl: couple is bred a dog, which partakes of maftifF and greyhound; from the firft is produ cd a mule, which partakes alfo of the afs and the mare. I wifh to know why the afs and the mare are two · differ:e1~t fpecies pf. quadn1peds, and the mall:iff ancL the greyh~und are· only varieties of on~ . fpecies. Becaufe this }ail; couple, .iaxs; Buffon, generates a {rtlitful indivjpual, th~ other not.' But how? Mr. Buffon, in the twenty-ninth volpme of.his Hi{l;ory,. freely affirms, that the mules not being able to conceive is not becaufe they are abfol_utely impotent, but onJy on account· pf the exceflive heat ,and extraordina~y cqnvulfions which they fuffer in coition. Mr. Bomare •(c),. after having c~ted the tcftimany of Arifiotle, who reports, in his Hiftory of Animals, that in his ·tin1e the mules of Syria· fpringing frotn horfes and. alfes, produced young mules fimilar to themfe.lves, adds, " This fact, related ~y a philofopher fo worthy .of fa1th, proves tha·t m.ules . are animals fpecifically fruit-ful •,iri themfelves, and in their ,polterity." ?,imilar, cafes, fllewing the fruitfulnefs of II).nles, are to be found atte.ll:ed by many authors, ancient as well as modern, worthy of credit j and fome caf~s. (c-) Dieticm. d' Hifloire Nnt. V. Mulct. have 'q.79 DJSSERT· IV. '-"v---1 |