INTRODUCTION. 61 



attention^ as regarding their original distribution, and 

 the sources whence mankind first drew the animals 

 it subdued and subsequently mounted. Finally^ a 

 review of the breeds noticed by the ancients will 

 expose some facts in history which we think both 

 new and curious. 



In the 12th edition of the Linnaean system, the 

 horse, or genus Equus, is placed among the Belluee, 

 constituting the sixth order of his Mammalia ; it is 

 a group very distinctly characterized, and perfectly 

 natural ; but, at the same time, remarkably isolated 

 from all other genera, by the form of particular 

 organs, which remain so constantly similar in the 

 several species as to make in their turn but slight 

 approximations to surrounding families, and leave 

 but trivial distinctions to separate the genus into 

 subordinate parts, or mark the difference of species. 

 These circumstances appear to have induced systema- 

 tic writers to admit them all into one. Gmelin, 

 indeed, in the 13th edition of the system of Linnaeus, 

 formed two, making his first out of Molinas Equus 

 Bisulcus, or cloven-footed horse, now universally 

 regarded as fabulous, or as a mere variety of Lama, 

 and the second of the solidungular species, w^hich 

 constitutes the true Equidae. Storr formed for it a 

 distinct order under the name of Solipedes, and 

 ranged it after the Ruminants ; while Iliiger, adopt- 

 ing this order, followed Erxleben, who had located 

 the horse between the elephant and camel, which 

 was nearly the same as the arrangement of the 

 Swedish naturalist: one corresponding to Belluse^ 



