THE GERM-PLASM THEORY 63 



thought were a reversion to the character of a 

 very remote ancestor, the common ancestor, in 

 fact, of all our present horses and asses ; an ancestor 

 which was striped all over its body like a zebra. 

 Of course, no one has ever seen this hypothetical 

 ancestor, which is postulated to account for certain 

 appearances, and may be a wholly imaginary crea- 

 ture. Darwin considered that the striped Kathiwar 

 horse was a typical example of the primitive dun- 

 coloured striped animal from which our domestic 

 breeds have come ; and, as a matter of fact, such 

 a Kathiwar horse is exhibited, as an example of 

 the doctrine in question, in the National Museum 

 of Zoology. Professor Ridgeway * has recently 

 set himself to study again the horse problem, and 

 has attacked this particular point with great 

 acumen, indicating that a good deal depends upon 

 whether the Kathiwar horses are indigenous and 

 uncrossed, or at least uncrossed, for " if it should 

 turn out that they are neither indigenous nor 

 uncrossed, the argument founded on them by 

 Darwin and succeeding writers will lose its 

 validity." 



And, after examining into the evidence, he 

 concludes (p. 261) that these " dun-striped horses 

 of Kathiwar are the result of crossing the upper 

 Asiatic dun horses with Libyan blood." And, 

 finally, he sums up the evidence which he has been 

 able to collect upon this point as follows (p. 464) : 

 " Darwin's view that the original ancestor of the 

 Equidae was a dun-coloured animal, striped all 



* The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse , Cam- 

 bridge, 1905. 



