Masterpieces of Science 



each foot; which had the bones of the fore-arm 

 and of the leg complete and separate; and 

 which possessed forty-four teeth, among which 

 the crowns of the incisors and grinders had a 

 simple structure; while the latter gradually 

 increased in size from before backwards, at any 

 rate in the anterior part of the series, and had 

 short crowns. 



And if the horse has been thus evolved, and 

 the remains of the different stages of its evolu- 

 tion have been preserved, they ought to present 

 us with a series of forms in which the number 

 of the digits becomes reduced; the bones of the 

 fore-arm and leg gradually take on the equine 

 condition; and the form and arrangement of 

 the teeth successively approximate to those 

 which obtain in existing horses. 



Let us turn to the facts, and see how far they 

 fulfil these requirements of the doctrine of evo- 

 lution. 



In Europe abundant remains of horses are 

 found in the Quaternary and later Tertiary 

 strata as far as the Pliocene formation. But 

 these horses, which are so common in the cave- 

 deposits and in the gravels of Europe, are in 

 all essential respects like existing horses. And 

 that is true of all the horses of the latter part 

 of the Pliocene epoch. But in deposits which 

 belong to the earlier Pliocene and later Miocene 

 epochs, and which occur in Britain, in France, 

 in Germany, in Greece, in India, we find animals 

 which are extremely like horses — which, in fact, 

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