INTRODUCTION xv 



The history of the horse begins, as seems fitting, with an account of the 

 animal's origin in prehistoric times from ancestors which diii'ered greatly in 

 form and habit from the horse of to-day, but possessed special characters 

 which entitled them to the name of horse-like animals, characters which 

 became more marked age after age until they culminated in the appearance 

 of the horse as it now exists. 



Many collateral subjects had to be considered in connection with the 

 evolution of the horse — embryology, geology, and palaeontology, all had to 

 be laid under contribution, so far only, however, as was essential to the 

 argument. In fairness to the reader, who is not asked to believe more than 

 is capable of proof, it was deemed necessary to show that what is called the 

 "theory of evolution" in reality represents a fact in nature, a process which 

 is always and everywhere going on, and is exhibited in an intelligible form 

 in the development of the ovum in the higher mammalia as in the lowest 

 forms of life. The fossils of what is known as the Tertiary formation 

 furnish among other things a consistent record of the evolution of the horse, 

 with hardly a gap, certainly without one of sufficient extent to lessen the 

 value of the facts on which naturalists have based their conclusions. As 

 leading up to the evidence which geology furnishes, it was essential to 

 devote some notice to special organs and parts in the anatomy of the horse, 

 on account of certain features they present suggesting that they must at 

 some remote period have existed in a more developed form and possessed 

 important functions which, owing to changes in conditions under which the 

 animal lives, they have gradually ceased to perform. Among the structures 

 that the horse possesses, but for which no present use can be found, the 

 most conspicuous are the horny growths on the insides of the legs, above the 

 knees and below the hocks, and also at the back of the fetlock joints. 

 These "corns", "callosities", or "chestnuts" and "ergots" as they are 

 variously called, have always attracted attention and excited curiosity, 

 and it was thought desirable to make a special investigation in reference to 

 their structure. The description and the illustrations which are given will 

 leave no doubt in the mind of the reader that whatever may have been 

 their original function, and whether they occur in the form of distinct 

 protuberances (as in the horse) or merely as "bare patches" (as in the ass), 

 they are true horn. AVhether or not they represent vanished digits (or 

 toes) is a question which is to some extent answered, but the reply leaves 

 a lingering doubt in the mind. 



From the horse of the remote past, the horse known only by its fossil 

 remains, to the creature of to-day the change is not very marked, and to the 

 scientist, indeed, is hardly perceptible. When we deal with more recent 

 periods, the varieties of the horse of historic times, and the first historical 



