THE HOUSE 



CHAPTER I 



THE HORSE'S PLACE IN NATURE — ITS ANCESTORS AND 

 RELATIONS 



Interest of the study of the horse, especially as illustrating some 

 important principles in biology — A test case of the value of the 

 theory of transmutation of species — Significance of rudimentary 

 structures — Meaning of the term 4 specialisation ' — Position of the 

 horse in the animal kingdom — Division of ungulate mammals 

 into perissodactyle and artiodactyle — The horse belongs to the 

 former — Palasontological history of the perissodactyles — General- 

 ised ungulates of the earliest Eocene age — Phenacodus — True 

 perissodactyles — Hyracotherium — Pala3otherium — Families 

 winch became extinct without leaving descendants — Three 

 surviving families, represented at the present time by the Tapirs, 

 Rhinoceroses, and Horses - The first the least and the last the 

 most modified — Principal characters by which horses differ from 

 the generalised early forms of perissodactyles, probably all adap- 

 tations to changed conditions of life — Present state and probable 

 future of the group. 



The horse is from many points of view one of the most 

 interesting of animals. In utility to man it yields to no 

 other. It was his domestic companion, friend, and ser- 

 vant before the dawn of history. It has accompanied 



B 



