52 HORSES. Chap. II 



Of individual variations not known to characterise par- 

 t cular breeds, and not great or injurious enough to be called 

 monstrosities, I have not collected many cases. Mr. G. Brown, 

 of the Cirencester Agricultural College, who has particularly 

 attended to the dentition of our domestic animals, writes to 

 me that he has " several times noticed eight permanent 

 incisors instead of six in the jaw." Male horses only 

 should have canines, but they are occasionally found in the 

 mare, though a small size.* The number of ribs on each 

 side is properly eighteen, but Youatt^ asserts that not 

 unfrequently there are nineteen, the additional one being 

 always the postei'ior rib. It is a remarkable fact that the 

 ancient Indian horse is said in the Rig-Veda to have only 

 seventeen ribs ; and M. Pietrement,* who has called attention 

 to this subject, gives various reasons for placing full trust in 

 this statement, more especially as during former times the 

 Hindoos carefully counted the bones of animals. I have seen 

 several notices of variations in the bones of the leg ; thus 

 Mr. Price ^ speaks of an additional bone in the hock, and of 

 certain abnormal appearances between the tibia and astra- 

 galus, as quite common in Irish horses, and not due to disease. 

 Horses have often been observed, according to M. Gaudry,^ 

 to possess a trapezium and a rudiment of a fifth metacarpal 

 bone, so that " one sees appearing by monstrosity, in the foot 

 of the horse, structures which normally exist in the foot of 

 the Hipparion," — an allied and extinct animal. In varioTis 

 countries horn-like projections have been observed on the 

 frontal bones of the horse : in one case described by Mr. 

 Percival they arose about two inches above the orbital pro- 

 cesses, and were " very like those in a calf from five to six 

 months old," being from half to three-quarters of an inch in 

 length.^ Azara has described two cases in South America in 



* 'The Horse,' &c. by John Law- xxii., 1866, p. 22. 



rence, 1829, p. 14. " Mr. Percival, of the Enniskillen 



^ 'The Veterinary,' London, voL v. Dragoons, in 'The Veteraary,' vol. i. 



p. 543. p. 224 : see Azara, ' Des Quaarup^des 



" 'M^moire sur les chevaux a dii Paraguay,' torn. ii. p. 313. The 



trente-quatre cotes,' 1871. French translator of Azara refers to 



' Proc. Veterinary Assoc, in ' The other cases mentioned by Huzard S8 



Veterinary,' vol. xiii. p. 42. having occurred in Spain. 



* ' Bulletin de la Soc. Ge'olog.,' torn. 



