198 THE HOUSE OF AMERICA. 



Mr. Huxley nor anybody else has told us what became of the- 

 outside toes and their columns in cases where there were five 

 toes. It will not do to chuck these out of sight and say nothing 

 about them; they must be accounted for or the theory fails. In 

 the specimen now under examination the fore feet are each sup- 

 plied with four toes, and each toe is supported by its own distinct 

 column of bone. Here we meet with the same difficulty as in 

 the case of five toes, for we have more material than the Huxley 

 theory is able to provide for. This theory has been generally 

 accepted among specialists, in this line of investigation, and they 

 all point to the splint bones, as already stated, as the remnants 

 of the two toes, adhering to the main column. This leaves the 

 one superfluous toe wholly unprovided for, and thus the theory 

 discredits itself and leaves the question in a shape that is entirely 

 unsatisfactory and unacceptable to the understanding. 



The teeth of this specimen, in their shape and arrangement, 

 very strongly resemble the teeth of the horse. Upon this one 

 fact is placed the chief reliance to sustain the claim that this was 

 the "Primal Horse," but this fact, when taken without the sup- 

 port of other facts, simply proves that the animal was herbivor- 

 ous, subsisting on the same kind of food as the horse, but it does- 

 not prove that he was a horse. The teeth are an excellent start- 

 ing point, and we admit their arrangement and resemblance to 

 the teeth of the horse, but the rules of comparative anatomy, as 

 well as common sense, require that at some other point or points, 

 there should be at least a suggestion of resemblance. In this 

 case there is absolutely no resemblance, but a very marked and 

 unmistakable divergence. The foot of this little animal, fifteen 

 inches high, bears no more resemblance to the foot of the horse 

 than the foot of the dog bears to the foot of the horse. Indeed, 

 the foot of the specimen before us, whether provided with three, 

 four or five claws, very strikingly resembles the foot of the dog. 

 The arrangement of the different specimens of the feet, commenc- 

 ing with the smallest with four toes and ending with the perfect 

 and full-grown foot of the horse as we know him, intended to 

 illustrate the process of evolution, is a very interesting study, but 

 when you have done with the last foot with claws and reach for- 

 ward for the first foot with a hoof, you find there is an impassable 

 gulf between them, over which the theory of Evolution has not 

 been able to construct a bridge. But there is another considera- 

 tion that is final and* that cannot be overcome by any theory 



