PART XI 



THE ONE BIG DIGIT OF THE HORSE 



PROFESSORS of Biology and Palaeontology have been teaching 

 that the Horse has only one enlarged digit in its four limbs, with 

 vestiges of two other digits hidden under the skin (the splint 



FIG. 88. (a) Foot of an extinct form of Horse-like animal, Pachynolophus (Eocene) ; (b) 

 of A nchitherium (Early Miocene); (c) of Anchitherium (Late Miocene); (d) of Hipparion 

 (Pliocene) ; (e) of Equus (Pleistocene), and also of the existing Horse ; from Mammals, by 

 Flower and Lydekker, p. 377. 



bones) ; and that this big digit owes its origin to one of the digits 

 (the iii.) in the hand and foot of an extinct animal, repeated with 

 modification in several other descendants, also extinct, until we reach 

 :that of the Horse fossil and existing as shown in Fig. 88. 



This enlarged digit is traceable in some other existing animals 



