Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 2 30 * * * In 1756, the French naturalist George-Louis Leclerc, Com- te de Buffon, published the fifth volume of his eventually thirty-six-volume Histoire Naturelle. Within its pages, which included sumptuous illustrations and a catalog of more or less all the animals known to Europe at that time, was an in- cendiary claim: American animals were wimps. "...[O]f the American animals," he wrote, "we shall perceive, that not only the number of species is smaller, but that in general, they are inferior in size to those of the old Continent." He wasn't done. In volumes 9 and 14, he expanded his notions of what would eventually be called "American degeneracy" by adding that the an- imals native to the New World were smaller and weaker than animals that only appeared in the Old World. As a matter of fact, he maintained that the Americas were such a cold, damp place that even if you transplanted Old World animals like cattle and sheep to the New World, they would still shrivel up and become listless. Though he had never set foot in America, only exam- ined a few specimens that had reached him and read reports from the early settlement of the East Coast, he proclaimed, "No American animal can be compared with the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the dromedary, the ca- melopard, the buffalo, the lion, the tiger, &c." Curiously enough, Europeans had known about the Amer- ican bison for more than a century, but Buffon does not in- clude them in his schema. Though Buffon may have meant for his proclamations to be taken literally, they soon assumed political dimensions in the rivalry between America and the Ancient Régimes of Europe. The founding fathers were incensed. Madi- son, for his part, starting measuring American weasels. After comparing them to Europe- an varieties, he wrote to Jefferson that his compiled data "clearly contradicted" Buf- fon's theory. While dining in France with the Abbe Raynal, a vocal champion of the theory of American degeneracy, Ben Franklin pa- tiently listened to Raynal espouse his ideas. Animals in the New World, he explained, were pencil-necked geeks. Benjamin Franklin observed that all the Americans in the room were seated on one side of the table, and the Europeans on the other. Perhaps they could stand up and compare their sizes? The result was just what you might expect: our boys were bigger. Later, Jefferson recalled with empha- sis how "the Abbe himself particularly, was a mere shrimp." The Tooth soon made the rounds, CONFOUNDING EVERYONE. THE MOST PREVALENT EXPLANATION WAS THAT IT WAS THE MOLAR FROM A GIANT PREHISTORIC MAN. Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon A mastodon tooth, well suited for chew- ing twigs and browsing. The sharp conical structures led early observers to conclude the animal must have eaten meat.

• Cover