ORDER PACHYDERM ATA. 435 



characterized in the text, we shall enter into no minute 

 details. A few general remarks upon it, a brief description 

 of the different species so important to mankind, and such 

 observations on the races of that one which has given a 

 name to the genus as may prove interesting, will be amply 

 sufficient for our present purposes. 



Horses compose a very natural, but a very isolated di- 

 vision among the Mammalia. They cannot be divided into 

 partial groups ; they constitute a single genus, so distinct, 

 and so important in its characters, that it cannot easily be 

 linked, by any connecting traits, to any other group or 

 genus. The different positions which it has hitherto oc- 

 cupied in the systems of naturalists, may serve to prove 

 this fact. Linnaeus unites the Horse with the Hippopo- 

 tamus, to form a genus in his order BelliMB. Erxleben 

 places it between the Elephant and the Dromedary. Storr 

 forms it into a distinct order, coming after the Ruminantia ? 

 under the name of Solipedes. This last arrangement was 

 at. first adopted by the Baron, but, subsequently, he placed 

 this genus, as we have seen, among the Pachydermata. 



Though totally herbivorous, the Horses have not more 

 than one stomach, and they do not ruminate. Their four 

 feet are monodactylous ; there are, however, vestiges of 

 two other toes under the skin. These two last characters 

 approximate them more to certain of the Pachydermata 

 than to any other mammifera. The molars have flat coro- 

 nals, six on each side in both jaws. The complicated 

 character of these teeth renders a written description of 

 them unintelligible, and their notoriety renders it unneces- 

 sary. There are eight incisors in each jaw, and two 

 canines in the males, and sometimes in the female of 

 the domesticated species. 



Their eyes are large, and sight excellent, and although 

 they are not nocturnal animals, they can distinguish objects 

 very clearly by night. 



