THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE. 



701 



The Horse of the Future.— We have seen that the 

 bones of the legs of the horse are gradually assuming the 

 character of a single column. In the wrist (knee) of the 

 pig, hke that of early ancestors of the horse, there are S 

 small bones, one of which (the trapezium) articulated with 

 the first digit, which has long been lost. The trapezium 

 is occasionally found in the horse, and then, only in 

 the form of a small nodule. In the hock of ancestors 

 of the horse, like that of the present pig, there were 

 7 small bones, 3 of which are called cuneiform bones ; 

 but in the hock of the horse, there are as a rule 

 only 6 small bones, the cuneiform bones being hmited 

 to the large and small cuneiform. Out of 49 sound 

 hocks which Joly examined at Saumur, 8 had only 5 

 small bones, in which cases, the two cuneiform bones 

 were fused together, hke the third and fourth metacarpal 

 and metatarsal bones of the ox (p. 682). There is 

 also an increasing tendency to bony union between 

 the sphnt bones and their respective cannon bones 

 Thus we find that comparatively harmless forms of 

 "simple" splint and ''low" spavin are increasingly 

 common among young horses that are subjected to civi- 

 lized conditions, which evidently entail more concussion 

 and strain on the hmbs, than natural conditions would do. 

 Agreeably to these changes, we have the fact that such 

 sphnts and spavins are less hable to injuriously affect 

 the usefulness of a thorough-bred than of, for instance, a 

 Mongolian pony or a South American broncho. We may 

 therefore conclude that as ages roll on, the sphnt bones 

 will disappear, and that, pari passu, the small bones of 

 the knee and hock which rest on them will also vanish. 

 Among other changes, the bones of the sternum will 

 in time become joined together, and anchylosis wiU 

 take place between the pelvis and sacrum. The race- 

 horse will become comparatively longer in the legs and 

 neck, stronger in the loins, and lighter in the back ribs 



