82 HUXLEY 



rising it in his presidential address to the Geological 

 Society in 1870, Huxley said that — 



if the expectation raised by the splints of the horses 

 that, in some ancestors of the horses, these splints 

 would be found to be complete digits, has been veri- 

 fied, we are furnished with very strong reasons for 

 looking for a no less complete verification of the 

 expectation that the three-toed PIagiolophus-\ike 

 " avus ' of the horse must have been a five-toed 

 " atavus " at some early period. 1 



In 1876, when visiting America, he was shown by 

 Professor Marsh the remarkable fossil found, among 

 others, in the Eocene formations of North America, 

 to which the name Orohippus was given, and which 

 was then the oldest known " member of the equine 

 series." It had four complete toes on the front limb, 

 and three toes on the hind limb, besides other features 

 linking it with the chain of equine ancestry. The 

 discovery evidenced that the accepted theory of the 

 European origin of the horse must be abandoned in 

 favour of America, into which continent that animal, 

 having become extinct, was imported by the Spaniards. 



In commenting on this wonderful " find," in a 

 lecture given at New York in September, 1876, 

 Huxley repeated the prophecy uttered six years be- 

 fore : — 



1 Coll. Essays, viii. p. 36 1. 



