The morning call., 1894-06-25
THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE

The winning OF the American Derby BY
Lucky Baldwin with another California
horse may attract reader or two to the
natural history of the horse, which has
just been written by the Rev. Il. n.
Hutchinson and published by the Apple
tons of New York. 1t happens that what
may be called the archaeology Of the horse
was made some years ago the subject of
close study by Professor Huxley in Eng
land and Professor Morse in the United
States. MIR. Hutchinson has put together
their discoveries and demonstrations and
the result is a most interesting compila-
tion.
When the Spaniards invaded Mexico
and Peru they found no horses there. and
the animal was unknown to the natives.
Yet, ages before. perhaps before the
horse fourished in Europe, he roamed in
wild state through the prehistoric pas
lures of North. and possibly South
America. The first horse found was dis
covered by Marsh in the mud and sand
Of the eocene period in Utah and Wyom
ing; be was christened the Orohippus :;
and he was soon followed by the miohp-
pus, whose fossil remains are found In the
claYs of the bad lands OF the norther tier
Oregon. These clays belong to the later
tertiary or pliocene period and thev
abound with skeletons of horses, showing
that the animal was abundant. He diff
fOred widely from the modern horse. He
was about the size of fox and had FORTY
four teeth; on his fore feet he had four
toes. and fifth in a rudimentary state
on his hind feet be had three toes. This
was the horse of the prairies when Eastern
oregon was lake, and many of the
horses plunged into that lake to die.
Then followed in the miocene period and
in regular succession two new varieties of
the horse, the mesohippus and the mio-
hippus. which were larger than their pre-
decessors. being about the size of a sheep.
In these animals the rudimentary toe and
the smallest of the four regular toes disap-
peared, leaving the animal with three toes
only. They were followed by the proto-
hippus, which was about as large as an
ass, and in which the two outer toes shrunk
in size so that they could have been of
little use. The last race deveIo pment be-
fore the appearance of the modern horse
was in the pliohippus, which must have
been like small Mexican pony. In this
creature the two outer toes disappeared,
leaving the middle toe only, and preparing
tho way ior the modern hoof, which is
merely the toenail of the great toe. With
the pllohippus The American horse appears
to have become extinct; for the evidence
is convincing TO naturalists that the wild
horses which now swarm on the Pampas
are not connected with the original stock,
but are descendants of horses imported by
the Spaniards. Mr.. Marsh found confirma-
ton OF this theory of evolution in the oc-
casional birth at the presen. day of horses
with supplementary toes on either side of
their hoofs, the ancsnt law of their creation
thus asserting itself In accidental eccen-
trlcitles of formation.
Between the horse of the eocene period,
which had five toes and was as big as a
fox. and the horse which won the Derby
on Saturday the gap is greater than any
modern student of tile horse has ever seen
or read of. And yet the advance which
has been made in developing the horse
within the past century or two is very re.
markable. Sporting men still remember
two-foriy was q proverbial expression for
matchlcss speed; now. nothing short of