ON SOLID-HOOFED PIGS. 407 
63. NOTE ON THE SOLID-HOOFED PIGS IN THE 
SOCIETYS COLLECTION.* 
Ox November 2nd, 1876, there arrived in the Gardens a pair of Page 33. 
Pigs (domestic variety) presented to the Society by Don J. Alfonso 
de Aldama, from Cuba, peculiar in that the hoofs of all the feet, 
instead of being cloven, are solid, much resembling those of the Ass, 
with the lateral diminutive digits as they are always found in the 
The sow gave birth on November 15th to a litter of six, three 
males and three females. Of these the hoofs were solid (like those in 
the parents) in three, namely in two males and one female. In the 
remaining male and two females the hoofs were double, as in the 
animal under ordinary circumstances. 
i Four of the young pigs are now living (a pair of solid-hoofed and 
a pair of normal-hoofed), a male solid hoofed and a female split-hoofed 
specimen having died within a few days of birth. 
On examining the feet of the deceased male solid-hoofed specimen, 
it was seen, as might have been inferred from an inspection of the 
“living animals, that all the monstrosity is confined to the ungual 
phalanges. The proximal and second phalanges are separated as 
usual, whilst at the extreme distal ends of the ungual phalanges these 
bones are completely fused together; and, further, there is a third 
ossicle developed at their proximal ends, where they are not completely 
united, between and above them. 
_ It might have been imagined that the deformity was simply the 
result of an agglutination along the middle line of the two completely 
formed digits; but such is not the case, the nail-structure being 
absent in the interval, where it is replaced by bone with a trans- 
verse cartilage below it. The nail is continued straight across the 
middle line of the hoof, as in the horse. In Mr. Darwin’s “ Animals 
and Plants under Domestication” (ed. 2, vol. i, p. 78), a full account 
will be found of several cases in which an exactly similar deformity 
existed. 
* “ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,” 1877, p. 33. Read, Jan. 16, 1877. 
