Volume 8

Natural history, general and particular / by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 300 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations. By William Smellie.

  • Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788.
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history, general and particular / by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 300 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations. By William Smellie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/462 (page 12)
    Le Me. à ee a Lap iam Er Ur L'Æ ts ster like a dog. But, in the fecond year, he ry to kill hin. Ilearned by experience, that thefe animals, though foftened by éducation, re- fume, with age, their natural ferocity. Willing to prevent thefe inconveniences, I kept my fhe- wolf always confined along with the dog ; and I acknowledge that this method of procuring an union between them was ill imagined ; for, in this {tate of flavery and difguft, the difpofitions of the wolf, inftead of being foftened, were foured to fuch a degree, that fhe was more fe- rocious than if the had been at full liberty ; and the dog, having been early detached from his equals, and from the fociety of men, had aflu- med a favage and cruel character, which the bad humour of the wolf ferved only to augment ; fo that, during the two laft years, their antipa- thy rofe to fuch a degree, that they defired no- thing fo much as to devour each other, In the | experiment made by the Marquis de Spontin, every circumftance was reverfed. The dog was in his ordinary condition : He had all the mild- nefs and other qualities which this docile animal acquires by his intercourfe with man. The wolf was likewife reared in perfe@ freedom and fa- miliarity along with the dog, which, by being under no reftraint, had loft his repugnance to her ; and fhe, by the fame mild management, became fufceptible of attachment to him. She, therefore, received him with cordiality, whenever the