I shall treat of these three at the same time, because they form but
one species. The one is wild, and the other two the same animal only
domestic; and though they are different in some external marks, and
perhaps in some of their habits, yet these differences are not very
essential, but relate merely to their condition: they are not much
changed by their domestic state; they will intermix and produce fertile
individuals; which is the only character that constitutes a distinct
and permanent species.
It is singular in these animals that their species seem to be entirely
distinct by itself, and not connected with any other, which may be
considered as principal or accessory, like that of the horse with the
ass, or the goat with the sheep; nor is it subject to a variety of
races like the dog; it participates of many species, yet essentially
differs from all. Let those who would circumscribe the immensity of
nature into narrow systems, attend to this animal, and they will find
it surmounts their methodical arrangements. In its extremities it has
no resemblance to whole-hoofed animals, being rather cloven-hoofed,
and yet it does not resemble them fairly, because though it appears
to have but two toes, yet it has four concealed within; nor does the
hog resemble those which have the toes separated, since he walks only
on two toes, and the other two are neither so placed, nor extended
sufficiently, to be made use of in that respect. Shall we consider
this as an error in nature, and that these two toes so concealed ought
not to be reckoned? If so, it should be remembered that this error is
constant: that besides, the other bones of the feet do not resemble
cloven-footed animals, and that there are striking differences in many
other respects, for the latter have horns and no incisive teeth in
the upper jaw, they have four stomachs, chew the cud, &c. while the
hog, on the contrary, has no horns, but one stomach, does not chew the
cud, and has cutting teeth both above and below; thus it is evident, he
neither belongs to the species of hoofed or cloven-footed animals, and
with as little propriety can he be ranked among the web-footed animals
since he differs from them not only in the extremities of the feet, but
in the teeth, stomach, intestines, and internal parts of generation.
All that can be said is, that in some respects he forms the shade
between the whole and cloven-footed animals, and in others between
the cloven-footed and digitated animals; for he differs less from the
whole-hoofed quadrupeds in the form and number of his teeth than from
others; he also resembles them in the length of his jaw, and, like
them, has but one stomach; but by an appendage annexed to it, as well
as by the position of the intestines, he seems nearly to approach the
cloven-footed animals, or those who chew the cud. He likewise resembles
them in the external parts of generation, and at the same time in the
make of his legs, habits of body, number of young, he approaches very
near to the digitated quadrupeds.
Aristotle was the first who divided quadrupeds into whole-hoofed,
cloven-footed, and digitated, and he allows, that the hog is of an
ambiguous species; but the only reason he gives is, that in Illyria,
Pæonia, and some other places there are hogs with whole hoofs. This
animal is also a kind of exception to the two general rules of nature,
namely, that the larger the animals the less young they produce, and
that digitated animals are the most prolific. The hog, though far above
the middling size, produces more than any other quadruped. By this
fertility, as well as by the formation of the ovary of the female, it
even seems to form the extremity of the viviparous species, and to
approach the oviparous. In short, the hog seems to be of an equivocal
nature, or rather appears so to those who suppose the hypothetical
order of their ideas to be the same as the common order of Nature,
and who only perceive, in the infinite chain of beings, some apparent
points to which they would refer every natural occurrence.
It is not by circumscribing the sphere of Nature that we can become
perfectly acquainted with her: we cannot judge of her by making her
act with our particular views; nor is it by ascribing our ideas to her
Author that we can penetrate into His designs. Instead of confining
and limiting the powers of Nature, we should extend them to immensity;
we ought to look on nothing as impossible, but that every thing
which may be, really has existence. Ambiguous species, and irregular
productions, would then cease to surprise, and appear equally as
necessary as others in the infinite order of things; they fill up the
intervals, form the immediate points, and mark the extremities of
the chain. These beings present to the human understanding curious
examples, where Nature, appearing to act less conformably to herself,
makes a greater display of her powers, and enables us to trace singular
characters, which indicate that her designs are more general than our
confined views, and that if she does nothing in vain, neither is she
regulated by the designs we attribute to her.
Should we not reflect on this singular conformation of the hog? He
appears not to have been formed on an original and perfect plan, since
he is composed of parts peculiar to other animals, and has evidently
parts of which he makes no use, particularly the toes above described,
notwithstanding the bones are perfectly formed. Nature is therefore
far from being influenced by final causes in the conformation of
beings; why may she not sometimes give redundant parts, since she
so often withholds those which are essential? How many animals are
deficient both in senses and members? Why should we suppose, that
in each individual every part is useful to others, and necessary to
the whole? Is it not sufficient that they are found together, that
they are not hurtful, can grow without hindrance, and unfold without
obliterating each other? All things which are not hostile enough to
destroy each other certainly can subsist together; and perhaps there
are, in most beings, fewer relative, useful, or necessary parts, than
those which are indifferent, useless, or superabundant; but as we would
always refer things to a certain end, when parts have no apparent
uses, we either suppose they have hidden ones, or invent relations
which have no foundation, and only serve to lead us into errors. We
do not consider that we alter the philosophy, and change the sense of
the object, when instead of inquiring how Nature acts, we endeavour
to divine the end and cause of her acting. This general prejudice,
which is too frequently adopted, serves only to cover our ignorance,
and is both useless and opposite to the inquiry after, and discovery
of, the effects of Nature. Without quitting our subject we can give
other examples, where the intentions we so vainly ascribe to Nature
are evidently contradicted. It is said the phalanges are formed merely
to produce fingers or toes, yet in the hog they are useless, since
they do not form toes which the animal can make any advantage of;
and in cloven-footed animals there are small bones which do not form
phalanges.[K] If then it was the design of Nature to produce toes, it
is evident that in the hog she has not more than half executed her
purpose, and in the others she has scarcely began it.
[K] M. Daubenton was the first who made this discovery.
The allantois is a membrane which is found in the foetus of the
sow, mare, cow, and many other animals. This membrane adheres to
the bladder of the foetus, and is said to be placed there for the
purpose of receiving its urine while it is in the belly of the mother;
and at the instant of birth, indeed, an inconsiderable quantity of
liquor is found in the allantois; in the cow, where perhaps it is most
abundant, it never amounts to more than a few pints; and the extent
of the membrane is so great, there is not any proportion between that
and the liquor. This membrane, when filled with air, forms a kind of
double packet, in the shape of a crescent, thirteen or fourteen inches
long, and from nine to twelve inches broad. Can it require a vessel
capable of containing several cubic feet to receive three or four pints
of water? The bladder of the foetus itself, if not pierced at the
bottom, would suffice to contain this liquor, as it does in mankind,
and those animals where the allantois has not been discovered; it is,
therefore, plain this membrane is not designed to receive the urine of
the foetus, nor for any purpose we are capable of imagining, for if
it was to be filled it would form a bulk as large as the body in which
it was contained; besides, as it bursts at the moment of birth, and is
thrown away with the other membranes which envelop the foetus, it is
certainly as useless then as it was before.
The number of teats, it has been said, in every species of animals,
corresponds with the number of young which the female can produce and
suckle. Why then has the male, which never produces, usually the same
number of teats as the female? and why should the sow, which sometimes
produces eighteen or twenty pigs, never have more than twelve teats,
and sometimes less? Does not this prove that it is not by final
causes that we can judge of the works of Nature, and that we ought
not to determine but by examining how she acts, and by employing the
physical reasons which present themselves in the immense variety of
her productions? Allowing that this method, which is the only one that
can conduct us to real knowledge, is more difficult than the other,
and that there are an infinity of facts in Nature, which, like the
preceding, cannot be applied with success, instead of searching for
the use of this great capacity in the allantois, we ought to inquire
into those physical relations which may indicate the origin of its
production; by observing, for example, that in animals, whose stomachs
and intestines are not very large, the allantois is either very small
or does not exist, and that consequently the production of this
membrane has some connection with the size of the intestines, &c. By
considering, in the same manner, that the number of teats is not equal
to those of the young, admitting only that the most prolific animals
have the greatest number of teats, we may conceive that this numerous
production depends on the conformation of the interior parts of
generation, and the teats being also the external dependencies of the
same parts, there is between the number and arrangement of those parts
and that of the paps a physical relation, which we should endeavour to
investigate.
But I here only endeavour to point out the right path, without entering
into a discussion; yet I must observe, that numerous productions depend
more upon the internal construction of the parts of generation than
any other cause. It certainly does not depend upon the quantity of
semen emitted, otherwise the horse, stag, ram, and goat, would be more
prolific than the dog, cat, and other animals, who produce a great
number of young, though they have but very little in proportion to
their size; neither does the number of young depend upon the frequency
of coition, for once coupling of the hog and the dog is sufficient to
produce a great many young; the length of time occupied in the emission
has no effect in this respect, for the dog remains long only because he
is retained by an obstacle in the conformation of the parts; and though
the boar has not this obstacle yet he remains longer coupled than most
animals, but no conclusion can be drawn from that in favour of the
numerous productions of the sow, since a cock requires not more than
an instant to fecundate all the eggs an hen will produce in a month. I
shall have occasion to unfold the ideas I have accumulated, with a view
to prove that a simple probability, or doubt, when founded on physical
relations, produces more light and advantages than all the final
causes put together.
To the singularities already related we shall add some others. The
fat of the hog differs from that of almost every other quadruped, not
only in its consistence and quality, but its position in the body of
the animal. The fat of man, and those animals which have no suet, such
as the dog, horse, &c. is pretty equally mixed with the flesh; the
suet of the sheep, goat, deer, &c. is found only at the extremities of
the flesh; but the fat of the hog is neither mixed with the flesh nor
collected at its extremities, but covers the animal all over, and forms
a thick, distinct, and continued layer between the flesh and the skin.
This peculiarity also attends the whale, and other cetaceous animals.
A still greater singularity is, that the hog never sheds any of his
cutting teeth, like man, the horse, ox, sheep, &c. but they continue
to grow during life. He has six cutting teeth in the under jaw, and a
corresponding number in the upper, but, by an irregularity, of which
there is not another example in Nature, the bottom ones are of a very
different form from the upper, for instead of being incisive and sharp,
the latter are long, cylindrical, blunt at the points, and form an
angle almost even with the upper jaw, so that their extremities apply
to each other very obliquely. It is only the hog, and two or three
other species of animals, which have the canine teeth very long; they
differ from other teeth by coming out of the mouth, and growing during
their whole lives. In the elephant, and sea-cow, they are cylindrical,
and some feet in length; in the wild boar, and male hog, they are
partly bent in the form of a circle, and I have seen them from nine to
ten inches long; they are deep in the socket, and, like those of the
elephant, have a cavity at the superior extremity; but the elephant and
sea-cow have these tusks only in the upper jaw, and are without canine
teeth in the under; while the male hog, and wild boar, have them in
both jaws, and those of the under are the most useful to the animal;
they are also the most dangerous, as it is with the lower tusks the
wild boar wounds those he attacks.
The sow, wild sow, and the hog which is cut, have these canine teeth
in the under jaw, but they do not grow like those of the boar, and
scarcely appear out of the mouth. Beside these sixteen teeth, that is
twelve incisive and four canine, they have twenty-eight grinders, which
make forty-four in the whole. The wild boar, (_fig. 29._) has the
tusks larger, the snout stronger, and the head longer than the domestic
hog, (_fig. 28._) his feet are always larger, his toes more separated,
and his bristles always black.
Of all quadrupeds the hog appears the most rough and brutal, and the
imperfections of his make seem to influence his nature; all his ways
are uncouth, all his appetites unclean, all his sensations are confined
to a furious lust and brutal gluttony; he devours, without distinction,
every thing that comes in his way, even his own young soon after their
birth. His voraciousness seems to proceed from the continual wants of
his stomach, which is immoderately large; and the coarseness of his
appetite is probably owing to the dullness of his senses, both as to
taste and feeling. The roughness of the hair, hardness of the skin, and
thickness of the fat, render these animals insensible to blows. Mice
have been known to lodge on their backs, and to eat their skin and fat
without their seeming sensible of it. Their other senses are good, and
it is well known to huntsmen, that wild boars see, hear, and smell at
a great distance, since in order to surprise them they are obliged to
watch in silence during the night, and to place themselves opposite to
the wind, to prevent them having notice of them by the smell, which
invariably makes them change their road.
_Engraved for Barr's Buffon._
[Illustration: FIG. 29. _Wild Boar_]
[Illustration: FIG. 28. _Boar_]
The imperfections in the senses of taste and feeling is still more
augmented by a leprous disease which renders him almost absolutely
insensible. This disorder proceeds perhaps less from the texture of
the skin and flesh of this animal than from his natural filth, and the
corruption which must result from the putrid food which he frequently
devours; for the wild boar who usually lives upon corn, fruits, acorns,
and roots, is not subject to this distemper, nor is the pig while it
continues to suck. The disorder is only to be prevented in the domestic
hog by keeping him in a clean stable and feeding him with wholesome
food: his flesh will become excellent and his fat firm and brittle,
if he is kept for a fortnight or three weeks before he is killed in a
clean paved stable, without litter, giving him no other food than dry
wheat, and letting him drink but little; for this purpose a hog of
about a year old and nearly fat should be selected.
The usual method of fattening hogs, is to give them plenty of barley,
acorns, cabbages, boiled peas, roots, and water mixed with bran. In two
months they are fat; their lard is thick but neither firm nor white;
and their flesh, though good, is rather insipid. They may be fattened
at less expence in woody countries, by conducting them into forests
during autumn, when acorns, chesnuts, beech-mast, must quit their husks
and fall from the trees. They eat indiscriminately all wild fruits, and
fatten in a short time, especially if a little warm water mixed with
bran and pease-meal is given to them every night on their return home;
this drink makes them sleep and augments their fat to such a degree
that they are sometime unable to walk or scarcely move. They fatten
much the quickest in autumn, both on account of the plenty of food and
because they lose much less by perspiration than in the summer months.
It is not necessary in fattening the hog, to wait, as with other
cattle, until he is full grown, for the older he is the more difficult
it is to fatten him, and his flesh decreases in goodness with age.
Castration, which should always precede fattening, is usually performed
when they are six months old, and either in spring or autumn, as both
heat and cold are injurious to the healing of the wound. When this
operation is performed in the spring, they are generally fit for
fattening the following autumn. They continue growing for four or five
years, and even to that period it is not limited, as boars kept for
propagation sometimes increase in size during the sixth, and the wild
boar is always larger in proportion to the number of his years: the
life of which sometimes extends to 25 or 30. According to Aristotle
hogs live twenty years, and both males and females are fertile till the
fifteenth. They can couple by the age of nine or twelve months, but it
is better to keep them separate until they are eighteen months or two
years. The sows have but few young at the first litter, and those are
generally weak, even when a year old; she is at all times in season
and solicits the male; she goes four months after copulation, and
litters at the beginning of the fifth; she will receive the male almost
immediately after and consequently bring forth twice in the year. The
wild sow has but one litter in the year, and as she perfectly resembles
the domestic one in every other respect, this difference may arise both
from her not having the same kind of nourishment, and being obliged to
suckle her young much longer. In fifteen days pigs are fit to kill; as
many females are unnecessary, and as castrated hogs bring most profit,
it is customary not to leave with the mother, after that period, more
than one or two females, and seven or eight males.
The boars kept for propagation should have a thick body, rather short
than long, a large head, short snout, long ears, small fiery eyes, a
thick neck, flat belly, broad thighs, short thick legs, and strong
black bristles. Black hogs are always stronger than white ones. The
sow should have a large body, spacious belly, and large dugs, and some
attention should be paid to her being of a mild disposition. After
conception she should be taken from the male, as he will sometimes
do her an injury: she should be plentifully fed when she litters,
and watched lest she destroys her young; and the male must then be
carefully kept away, or he will devour the whole of them. It is common
to let the females go with the males in the spring, that they may
litter in the summer, and that the pigs may acquire strength before
winter; unless when two litters are required in the year, then she
is put to the male in November, and again at the beginning of May:
some of them will regularly produce every five months. The wild sow
generally goes with the male in January, and brings forth in June; she
suckles her young three or four months, and they never separate from
her before they are two or three years old; and it is not uncommon to
see her accompanied with two or three different litters at a time.
The domestic sow is not permitted to suckle her young more than two
months; as early as three weeks even, they go with the mother to the
fields, by way of being habituated to her mode of living, and five
weeks afterwards they are weaned, when, for some short time they have a
little milk, mixed with bran, given them morning and evening. Hogs are
particularly fond of earthworms and roots, for the purpose of procuring
which it is that they tear up the ground with their snouts. The wild
boar, who has a stronger snout than the domestic one, digs deeper, and
nearly in a straight line, while the latter does it very irregularly.
The wild boars do not separate from their mothers until the third
year, and to which age they are called by hunters flock-beasts, from
that circumstance. They never go alone until they are strong enough
to encounter the wolf. At that time they form themselves into flocks,
and if attacked, the largest and strongest front the enemy, and by
pressing against the weak ones keep them in the middle; the domestic
hogs follow the same method, and therefore require not to be guarded
with dogs. They are very untractable, and one man cannot manage more
than fifty of them at a time. They procure a number of wild fruits
in autumn and winter by being taken to the woods, as they do worms
and roots in moist lands in summer, both of which are good for them;
and they may be allowed to go into waste and fallow lands during the
spring. From March to October they are taken out as soon as the dew is
off the ground, and kept to feed till ten o'clock; about two they are
suffered to go out again, and continue till the evening. In the winter
they are only let out when the weather is fine, as dew, snow, and rain,
are very injurious to them. When a heavy rain or storm comes on, it is
not uncommon to see them desert the flock one after another, and run
and cry until they arrive at the stable-door; and it is the youngest
which cry the loudest; this cry is different from their usual grunting,
and resembles that which they make when tied up for slaughter. The male
cries less than the female; and the wild boar seldom cries but when he
is wounded in fighting with another; the wild sow cries more often, and
when suddenly surprised will breathe with such violence as to be heard
at a great distance.
Although these animals are great gluttons, yet they do not attack or
devour other animals; sometimes, however, they eat corrupted flesh.
Wild boars have been seen to eat horse-flesh, and the skin of the deer,
and the claws of birds have been found in their stomach; but this is,
perhaps, more from necessity than instinct. It cannot, nevertheless, be
denied that they are very fond of blood, and of fresh and bloody flesh,
since they will eat their own young, and even children in the cradle.
Whenever they find any thing succulent or humid, fat or unctuous, they
first lick and then swallow it. It is common for a whole herd of these
animals to stop round a heap of new-dug clay, and though it is but
very little unctuous, they will all lick it, and some of them swallow
great quantities. Their gluttony is as gross as their nature is brutal:
they have scarcely any distinct sentiments; the young ones hardly know
their mothers, for they are very apt to mistake her, and to suck the
first sow that will permit them. Fear and necessity seem to give more
instinct and sentiment to wild hogs, for the young are more attached
to their mother, who also appears more attentive to them than does
the domestic sow. In the rutting season the male follows the female,
and generally stays about a month with her in the thickest and most
solitary parts of the forest: he is then more fierce than ever, and
becomes perfectly furious if another male endeavours to occupy his
place, in that case they fight, wound, and sometimes kill each other.
The wild sow is never furious but when her young is in danger; and it
may be remarked in general, that in almost all wild animals the males
are more ferocious in the rutting season, and the females when they
have young.
The wild boar is hunted by dogs, or taken by surprise in the night, by
the light of the moon. As he flies slowly, leaves a strong odour behind
him, defends himself against the dogs, and wounds them dangerously,
he should not be hunted by dogs designed for the stag, &c. as it will
spoil their scent, and give them the habit of moving slowly. Mastiffs
will serve the purpose, and are easily trained to it. The oldest only
should be attacked, and they are easily known by the tracks of their
feet; a young boar of three years old is difficult to take, because he
runs a great way without stopping; but the old boar does not run far,
suffers himself to be close hunted, and has no great fear of the dogs.
In the day he usually hides himself in the most unfrequented parts of
the wood, and comes out in the night in quest of food. In summer it is
very easy so surprise him, especially in the cultivated fields, where
the grain is ripe, which he will frequent every night. As soon as he is
killed the hunters cut off his testicles, for their odour is so strong
that in five or six hours the whole of his flesh would be infected. Of
an old wild boar the head only is good to eat, while every part of the
young one, of not more than one year old, is extremely delicate. The
flesh of the domestic boar is still worse than that of the wild one,
and it is only by castration and fattening that they are rendered fit
to eat. The ancients castrated the young wild boars, which they could
get from their mothers, and then returned them again into the woods,
where they soon grew fat, and their flesh was much better than that of
domestics hogs.[L]
[L] See Aristotle's Hist. Animal. lib. vi. cap. xxviii.
No one who lives in the country is ignorant of the profits arising from
the hog; his flesh sells for more than that of the ox, and his lard
for nearly double; the blood, intestines, feet, and tongue, are all
prepared and used as food. The dung of the hog is colder than that of
other animals, and should not be used for any but hot and dry lands.
The fat of the intestines and web, which differs from the common lard,
is employed for greasing wheels, and many other purposes. Sieves are
made of the skin, and brushes and pencil-brushes are made of the hair
and bristles. The flesh of this animal takes salt better, and will keep
longer than that of any other.
This species, though very abundant, and greatly spread over Europe,
Asia, and Africa, were not found on the New Continent till they were
transported thither by the Spaniards, and who also took large black
hogs to almost all the islands of America. They have become wild, and
multiplied greatly in many places: they resemble our wild boars, and
their bodies are shorter, their heads larger, and their skins thicker
than the domestic hogs, which in warm climates are all black, like the
wild boar.
By one of those prejudices which superstition alone could produce
and support, the Mahometans are deprived of this animal; having been
told hogs are unclean, they do not either touch or feed on them. The
Chinese, on the contrary, are very fond of their flesh; they raise
numerous herds of them, and pork is their principal food; and this
circumstance is said to have prevented them from receiving the law of
Mahomet. The hogs of China, Siam, and India, differ a little from those
of Europe; they are smaller, have shorter legs, and their flesh is
much more white and delicate. Some of them have been reared in France,
and they will intermix and produce with the common hogs. The negroes
raise great numbers of hogs, and though there are but few among the
Moors, or in the countries inhabited by the Mahometans, yet wild boars
are as plenty in Africa and in Asia as in Europe.
Thus these animals are not confined to any particular climates; it is
only observable, that the boar, by becoming domestic, degenerates more
in cold than in warm climates. A degree of temperature is sufficient
to change their colour. Hogs are commonly white in the northern parts
of France, as they are in Vivarais, while in Dauphiny, which is not
far distant, they are all black; those of Languedoc, Provence, Spain,
Italy, India, China, and America, are also of the same colour. The hog
of Siam has a greater resemblance than the hog of France to the wild
boar. One of the most evident marks of degeneration is furnished by the
ears, which become more supple and pendant as the animal changes into a
domestic state; in short the ears of the domestic hog are not so stiff,
are much longer, and more pendant than those of the wild boar, which
ought to be regarded as the model of the species.