Science from an Easy ChairLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history; Science
overlie this cavity in horses of Arab descent, but it is not improbable
that occasional instances of such survival will some day come to light.
A very interesting fact in connection with this concavity and its
indication of a distinction between the Northern (Mongolian) and the
Southern (Arabian) horse is that in India a fossil horse of very late
Tertiary date has been found, a true one-toed horse, not a Hipparion,
which has the pre-orbital cup well marked, and is possibly the ancestor
of the Arab.
There is no very great difference between the wild horse and wild asses
and zebras. They are distinct “species,” but will breed together and
produce “mules,” which in rare cases appear to be themselves fertile,
although this is doubtful. The inner causes of the infertility of mules
are not really known or understood. Nor, in fact, do we know really and
experimentally what are the causes of fecundity and of infecundity in
normally paired animals, including mankind. It is of the utmost
importance to modern Statecraft that this subject should be studied, and
there is a great field for experimental inquiry.
A clear mark of difference between the horse and the other species of
the genus Equus (namely, the Asiatic and African asses and the zebras)
is found in the curious wart-like knobs[1] on the legs, which are called
“chestnuts.” These warty knobs appear to be the remains in a “dried up”
condition of glands, such as are found in the legs of deer in a similar
position, and secrete a glairy fluid. In new-born colts they sometimes
exude a fluid, and also more rarely in adult horses. The fluid attracts
other horses (probably by its smell), and also causes dogs to keep
quiet. The horse has one of these wart-like “chestnuts” above the wrist
joint (so-called knee) on the inner side of the fore-leg. And so have
all the asses and zebras. But the horse (Fig. 12) has also a similar
“chestnut” on the inner side of each of its hind-legs, below the
heel-bone, or “hock.” This hind-leg chestnut is absent in all asses and
zebras. This difference between the horse and ass can be tested by my
readers on any roadside by their own observation. The hind-leg chestnut
is also absent in certain breeds of ponies from Iceland and the
Hebrides. Its presence and absence are interesting in connection with
the disappearance of the face-gland or pre-orbital gland in all recent
horses, asses, and zebras.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Fore and hind legs of horse and ass, to show
the “chestnuts,” and the absence of that structure from the hind-leg of
the ass.]
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