[H]ad you ſtaid, you would have taken but little comfort in your life, in regard that ever ſince ther have bin the fearfulleſt diſtractions here that ever happen'd upon any part of the earth, a Beluin kind of immanity never rag'd ſo among men, inſomuch that the whole Countrey might have taken its appellation from the ſmalleſt part thereof, and be call'd the Iſle of Dogs; for all humanity, common honeſty, and that Manſuetude with other Moral Civilities which ſhould diſtinguiſh the rational Creature from other Animals, have been loſt here a good while; […]
The negroes believe that its presence has a sanitary effect upon their cattle; and hardly a flock is seen without having one or two sing-sings along with it.
this vibratility , or disposition to preternatural motion in animal matter , is the predisposing cause of fevers
Other island examples include pygmy hippos, pygmy deer, pygmy foxes, and the peculiar “mouse-goat”—an extinct species of dwarf sheep that had lived on the Balearic Islands of Spain.