128 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



evidence based on the ancestors of the horse dis- 

 covered by Marsh and others. So strong, indeed, is 

 this evidence considered, that it has been said that 

 if the theory of Evolution had not existed before, 

 "paleontology would have been compelled to invent 

 it, so clearly are the traces of it to be seen in the 

 study of Tertiary mammalia discovered since 1859." 



According to Prof. Huxley, "the primary and 

 direct evidence in favor of Evolution can be fur- 

 nished only by paleontology." Again he avers that: 

 " The only perfectly safe foundation for the doctrine 

 of Evolution lies in the historical, or rather archaeo- 

 logical evidence, which is furnished by fossil remains, 

 that particular organisms have arisen by the gradual 

 modification of their predecessors." He tells, too, 

 that "On the evidence of paleontology, the Evolution 

 of many existing forms of life from their predeces- 

 sors is no longer a hypothesis, but a historical fact ; 

 it is only the nature of the physiological factor to 

 which that Evolution is due which is still open to 

 discussion." 1 



But what about the pedigree of the horse? What 

 about those ancestral equine forms about which so 

 much has been said and written? 



The ancestors of the horse, as revealed by the 

 discoveries of Marsh and others, are " Protohippus or 

 hipparion, which is found in the Pliocene ; miohip- 

 pus and mesohippus^ found in the Miocene; orohippus 

 in the Eocene ; and eohippus, at the base of the Eo- 

 cene. In the protohippus each foot has three well- 

 formed digits ; miohippus, in addition to this, has a 



1 " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. VIII, p. 751. 



