]. It commenced existence as a "pentadactyle plantigrade bunodont."
For some indefined reason "the first step was to walking on the toes
instead of on the flat of the foot, ... which became general in most
lines of their descendants. For galloping on hard ground _it is evident_
that one strong and long toe, protected by a solid hoof, was more
serviceable than four short and weak toes." [But why should it gallop
more than other animals; or why on the _hard_ ground in the deserts and
plains; or would not _four_ strong and long toes have been better than
one?] "The coalescence of the toes is the fundamental fact in the
progress ... by which the primitive bunodont was converted into the
modern horse." But we thought evolution was a change from the
homogeneous, incoherent to the heterogeneous and coherent: surely the
change from five toes to one must have been a misfortune on the whole,
if the flexibility of the human hand accounts for man's intellect. The
advantages of a convenient gallop over occasional oases of hard ground
in the desert would hardly balance that of being able to climb trees.
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