134 



THE STRUCTURE OP THE HORSE 



ture, only in a very much more developed condition, is 

 found. In that animal it runs upwards, as a long, 

 narrow tube, from the external nostril, at first in con- 

 tact with its fellow of the opposite side, and afterwards, 

 taking a curiously curved course, terminates in a 

 dilated, closed extremity, which lies in a distinct groove 

 by the side of the upper part of the nasal bone. Its 

 walls are cartilaginous, and convoluted in such a manner 

 as greatly to increase the area of the internal surface. 

 It is obvious that the 1 false nostril ' of the horse cannot 

 be looked upon as anything specially belonging to the 

 economy of that animal, but rather as a rudimentary 

 condition or survival of a structure which is far more 

 highly developed in some of the more primitive forms 

 of Perissodactyles. This view is greatly strengthened 

 by the recent discovery of an exactly similar structure 

 in the rhinoceros, only in a condition intermediate 

 between that in which it is found in the horse and the 

 tapir. 1 



Thus, an organ which, when only known in one 

 animal, appeared strange, anomalous, and puzzling, 

 because there seemed nothing to account for its 

 presence, acquires in the light of wider knowledge a 

 much deeper interest ; for if we cannot yet discover 

 its purpose, its existence in some modification in all of 



1 F. E. Beddard, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 

 1889, p. 10. 



