Science from an Easy Chair

by Sir E. Ray Lankester

[Transcriber’s Note: The original image is approximately 2¼ inches (5.5cm) wide and 1 inch (2.5cm) high.]

It was, until the discoveries of M. Piette, held that though the cave-men killed, ate, and made pictures of the horse of those remote days, yet that they did not tame it, put a halter or a bridle on it, and make use of it. Some of the carvings figured by M. Piette leave, however, no room for doubt that the cave-men fitted a bridle to the head and muzzle of the horse. These carvings ([Fig. 9]) show a twisted thong placed round the nose and passing near the angle of the mouth where it is possible, though not certain, that a “bit” was inserted. Connected to this main encircling thong are four twisted cords (on each side of the head), which run horizontally backwards, and the two lower of these are joined by a flat, plate-like piece, which is ornamented. The whole apparatus is further connected to a twisted cord on each side, which runs towards the back of the head, but it is not shown in the carving what becomes of it. Thus it seems clear not only that the cave-men of these remote ages were wonderful artists, but that they mastered and muzzled the horse.

Fig. 9.—Drawing (of the actual size of the original) of a flat carving in shoulder-bone, of a horse’s head, showing twisted rope-bridle and trappings. a appears to represent a flat ornamented band of wood or skin connecting the muzzling rope b with other pieces c and d. This specimen is from the cave of St. Michel d’Arudy, and is of the reindeer period. This, and others like it, are in the museum of St. Germain.

[Transcriber’s Note: The original image is approximately 1¾ inches (4.5cm) wide and 1¼ inches (3cm) high.]

Some of the engravings of horses’ heads seem to indicate the existence of a horse alongside the commoner form with a narrower, more tapering face, and may possibly be due to the introduction, even at that remote period, of another race distinct from the Northern or Mongolian wild horse. That this admixture of a distinct and more slender horse with the Northern horse has taken place over and over again in historical times is a matter of knowledge. The question is, when did it first take place, and where did the more slender horse come from? In later days we know this more shapely breed as the Arab and the Barb, and the introduction of its blood at various times into the more Northern stock is well ascertained. The latest great historical case of such admixture is the production of the English thoroughbred in the eighteenth century by such sires as the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Barb, and the Brierley Turk, whose blood is transmitted to modern racehorses through the great historic sires, Herod, Matchem, and Eclipse, the ancestors of practically all modern racehorses.

The horse of more Southern origin thus recognised as distinct from the prehistoric European horse, it is now convenient to speak of as the Southern or Arabian horse. There are certain curious structural features which seem to mark these horses and their offspring, even when their strain is blended with that of the more Northern horse. Probably from the time of the cave-men onward the selective breeding of horses has been carried on, so that in many breeds size has been vastly increased. It is an important fact that the English racehorse has never been selected and bred for “points” (as cattle and sheep are), but always by performance on the racecourse. Thus it becomes an extremely interesting matter to see what are the changes which the breeder of thoroughbred stock has unconsciously produced—what are the differences between the racehorse of to-day and that of 50, 100, and 150 years ago. This was pointed out to me by the late Duke of Devonshire as a reason for supporting my proposal to secure and place in the Natural History Museum the skulls, limb-bones, hoofs, and other indestructible parts of great racehorses (and of other breeds), and also for having very accurately measured reduced models made of such horses, in order that we may after some years compare the proportions and structure at present arrived at with the later developments which the continual selection of winner’s blood in breeding must unconsciously produce. Such a collection was started by me in the museum, but it needs the assistance of owners of horses—both as to placing record specimens in the museum and in paying for the preparation of accurately reduced models by competent artists. It already comprises the skulls of Stockwell, Bend Or, and Ormonde, and several carefully made reduced models of celebrated horses. There is no doubt that the English racehorse has increased in size. He is a bigger animal to-day than he was 200 years ago, and the opinion of the best authorities is that he has increased on the average an inch in height at the withers in every twenty-five years. The racehorse has a much longer thigh-bone and upper-arm bone (in proportion to the rest of the leg) than has the cart-horse, and it is probable that this length has been continually increased by the selection of winners for breeding.

There are other points of scientific interest as to modern horses and their forefathers which are illustrated by valuable specimens and preparations placed by me in the Natural History Museum.

All those hairy warm-blooded quadrupeds which suckle their young, and are hence called mammals, are the descendants of small five-toed ancestors about the size of a spaniel. This is equally true of the elephant, the gorilla, the horse, and the ox. In the sands and clays deposited since the time of the chalk-sea, the remains (bones and teeth) of the ancestors of living mammals are found in great abundance. These sands and clays are called “the Tertiaries,” and are divided into lower, middle, and upper—whilst we recognise as “Post-Tertiaries” (or Quaternary) the later formed gravel and cave deposits in which the remains and weapons of the cave-men have been found. The Tertiaries consist of a series of deposits amounting to about 3000 feet in thickness, and they have taken several million years in depositing—no one can say how many.