1882.] J. Cockburn — Folydacti/lism in a horse. 115 



** The seals I read — 



No. 1. S'rissama Guptasya. 



No. 2. Rati mutta. 



No. 3. Tega sinha. 



The first is your reading. I explain the double s by splitting 

 tbe words thus: Sri auspicious epithet, Ts-sama equal (sama) to the 

 Lord (Is). 



The second means " he who has got rid of concupiscence," from rati 

 " concupiscence," and muJcta, " free from." 



In the third the nasal is not an anus vara, but the nasal of the first 

 group of letters ^." 



Mr. Cockburn brought before the Society an interesting case of Poly- 

 dactylism in a horse, observed by him in the streets of Calcutta. 



" The animal was a black pony about 11 hands high, with a second toe 

 developed on each fore leg. The inner metacarpal of the manus, corre- 

 sponding to digit number 2 of the typical mammalian five-fingered hand, 

 bore a long supernumerary hoof, which must have interfered to some extent 

 with the animal's movements. He had ascertained by digital examination 

 that the supernumerary digits were composed of the usual number of bones, 

 viz.y a proximal median and distal phalanx, and that the articulations 

 possessed a certain amount of mobility. The hind limbs did not show 

 any external indications of abnormal development. Unfortunately he could 

 only make a very hurried examination, and has not been able to trace the 

 animal since. 



" Polydactylism in the horse would not appear to be of common occur- 

 rence in India. Mr. Wood-Mason had previously recorded an instance in 

 the Proceedings of the Society for January 1871, (page 18, plate I,) and 

 the preparation described by him formed one of the most interesting objects 

 in the Mammal Gallery of the Indian Museum. The development of the 

 existing Equines which are monodactyle out of polydactyle Hippotheroid 

 ancestors is now as widely known as the Darwinian theory itself, and 

 affords an excellent popular illustration of that theory. The researches of 

 Professor Marsh in America had thrown much light on the subject. The 

 extinct polydactyle Hippotheroids alluded to were Orohi'ppus, Meohippus^ 

 AncTiitherium and Hipparion, which formed a perfect gradation from a 

 four toed to a single toed horse." 



Mr. Wood-Mason remarked that this was a kind of monstrosity of 

 which many instances had been brought forward, and the significance of 

 which had been many years ago pointed out by himself, and since very fully 

 explained by Professors Huxley and Marsh in connection with their re- 

 searches in the Natural History of extinct Horses ; and that the present 



