THE DISCOVERER 8 1 



The ungulate or hoofed quadrupeds are divided into 

 the odd-toed and the even-toed, the toes never exceed- 

 ing, except in the case of monstrosities, five on each 

 limb. The horse, whose nearest allies in descent are 

 the tapir and the rhinoceros, belongs to the odd-toed 

 or Perissodactyla (Greek, perissos^ uneven, and daktulos, 

 finger). In the horse of to-day the toes have become 

 absorbed, so that what is called its " knee " corre- 

 sponds to the position of a man's wrist ; the metacar- 

 pus, or " cannon-bone," answers to the third or 

 middle finger of the human hand ; the " pastern," 

 " coronary," and " coffin " bones answer to the joints 

 of that finger, and the hoof to its nail. The smaller, 

 or " splint bones," represent our second and fourth 

 fingers, and some small bony prominences at the 

 bases of these probably represent our first and fifth 

 fingers. 1 



Fossil remains of horses of the existing type are found 

 as far back as the later Tertiary period ; in the later 

 Miocene or middle Tertiary beds, horse-like animals 

 with three toes, the middle one of which touched the 

 ground, have been discovered, while the early Mio- 

 cene deposits have yielded an animal with horse-like 

 characters having three complete toes. Here the 

 European evidence comes to an end, and in summa- 



1 On the general structure and modifications see The Horse, by 

 Sir W. H. Flower, chaps, iii., iv. 



