26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are usually regarded as a serious detriment to the animal, they are gen- 

 erally removed from the colt soon after birth; but, in such cases, the en- 

 larged splint-bones not unfrequently indicate in the adult their former 

 existence. Numerous cases of extra digits in the horse have been re- 

 corded, and in nearly all of them a single lateral hooflet was present on 

 one of the forelegs." 



Professor Marsh states that the first recorded instance of extra 

 digits in the horse known to him are two mentioned by George Simon 

 Winter, in his famous book on horses, published at Nuremberg in 

 1703. One of the horses referred to, and figured in this work, was 

 " eight-toed," having a small extra digit on the inside of each foot. 

 Winter states that this horse was exhibited in Germany in 1663, and 

 a portrait of it preserved in Cologne. His account was derived from 

 a person who had examined the animal. The other horse described by 

 Winter had a small hoof in the inside of each fore-foot ; and this 

 steed, Winter states, he had not only seen but ridden. Other instances 

 of this phenomenon are referred to, on the authority of Geoffrey Saint- 

 Hilaire, Owen, and Leidy. 



Fig. 2.— Outline op Horse with Extra Digit on Each Foot. 



Professor Marsh has described an interesting case of this reversion 

 in the horse, which he has personally examined, and which is repre- 

 sented in Fig. 2. He says : " This animal was on exhibition in New 



