2 THE ANCESTORS [CH. 



own osteological types. The district where each is priocipally 

 found is denoted by its Latin praenomen : — (1) Equus cahallus 

 asiaticus, (2) B. c. africanus, (3) E. c. germanicus, (4) E. c. 

 frisius, (5) E. c. belgicus, (6) E. c. hritannicus, (7) E. c. 

 hihernicus, (8) E. c. sequanius. 



Sanson divided all the horses hitherto known as ' Oriental ' 

 or 'Arab' between his two first species — Asiaticus and Afri- 

 canus, as he conceived that they had two separate places of 

 origin denoted by the names which he assigned to them. The 

 Asiaticus he conceived to have originated and been domesticated 

 in central Asia, whilst from the existence of a peculiar breed of 

 black horses, commonly with white feet, known as Dongolawi, 

 from the fact that they are found round Dongola in Nubia, he 

 was led to maintain that this breed had " originated in north- 

 east Africa, probably in Nubia." He declares that there are 

 distinct osteological differences between Asiaticus and Africanus, 

 holding that the former has a flat forehead, and a straight 

 chaffron, which gives its head a rectangular profile, that it has 

 prominent orbits projecting beyond the plane of the forehead, 

 a long head, a large chest, a round barrel, a large rounded croup, 

 and a tail borne far from the body, whilst Africanus has a 

 forehead rounded like the segment of a globe, and the lower 

 part of the chaffron slightly convex, features which give its 

 head a bousque or moutonne look ; the orbits are not salient, the 

 ears are longer and are less divided apart at the base, the body 

 not so capacious, the chest not so large, the sides less curved, 

 the croup more like that of a mule, the tail carried near the 

 body, the thighs always slender, and the legs longer than in 

 Asiaticus, and it differs from the latter in the number of its 

 lumbar vertebrae, and by the absence of hock callosities \ 



Sanson derives ultimately his remaining six classes from 

 his asiaticus ; several of them are known by other names, 

 germanicus as Danish, liis frisius as Flemish, whilst his 

 hritannicus comprises the Norfolk or Black Horse, the Suffolk 

 Punch, and in France the Boulonnais and Cauchois (Caux), his 

 hihernicus includes all the ponies of the United Kingdom and 



' Op. cit. (ed. 4), Vol. in. p. 52: "Les membres posterieurs sont depourvus 

 de chataignes." 



