2 



the photographs which I shall show this evening you will see several of the speci- 

 mens which I succeeded in finding by means of the Whitney fund. 



The subject of the origin and history of the horse is not a simple one. It 

 is a very complex one, because every scientific problem, like every financial 

 problem, has its method of attack — from a number of different points of view. 



The first of the points to consider is that of the horse as the most perfect 

 animal machine among the quadrupeds. Second, we shall see how this ma- 

 chine by purely natural processes evolved from comparatively small and simple 

 beginnings. So we shall follow the evolution of a number of structures which 

 make up this machine, and of the horse as a whole. Third, we shall look at the 

 races, the wild breeds of the family of horses, as they are found in Asia and Africa 

 today, because it is possible that some of these breeds throw some considerable 

 light upon the most interesting of questions, the origin and history of this ani- 

 mal. Fourth, we come to the point where the history of the horse touches the 

 history of man, and that was a turning point in the history of civilization, be- 

 cause, if you will reflect a moment, when man discovered the use of the horse, 

 he discovered a mechanism which he could turn to his service in the same way 

 as we use steam and electricity today. The horse became a means of civilization, 

 of exploration and intercommunication. So, the history of the horse as a use- 

 ful animal to man comes in as the third or fourth topic. 



Finally, we have the question of questions today both from the theoretical 

 or historical point of view, and from the practical standpoint. Has man domes- 

 ticated the horse from one breed, or have different races of men in different 

 parts of the world discovered this animal and domesticated him independently? 

 In other words, has our domesticated horse a single or a multiple origin? Re- 

 cent discoveries throw a great deal of light upon this question, and also, as I 

 shall show, a very important light upon the practical question of the breeding 

 of the horse. On these problems discoveries which have already been made 

 throw much light and it is gratifying to know that New York is taking a very 

 prominent part in this research. I am also much indebted to Prof. Cossar Ewart, 

 of the University of Edinburgh, with whom I have had the pleasure of long 

 friendship and with whom I had the privilege lately of a journey through Mex- 

 ico, with a view of studying the horse there. 



Last year a new student of the horse became known to the scientfic world, 

 in the person of Prof. William Ridgeway, of Caius College, Cambridge Uni- 

 versity, England, a Greek scholar and the author of "Social Life in Greece." 

 It was rather surprising to find a Greek scholar taking up this question of the 

 history of the horse, but the matter was cleared up when I learned that Ridgeway 

 was brought up on the finest horse breeding land in Ireland, had always loved 

 the horse, and that some twenty years before in reading some classical allusions 

 to the horses of the Greeks, he became interested in the history of the animal 

 and had been studying it at intervals as an avocation ever since. 



The work of these two men, as well as our own researches here in New 

 York, form a tripod of new evidence on which rests the story which we shall 

 now look into. 



