Defcript'ion of a Horfe without Hair, 37 



of thofe ridiculous tales and abfurd fuppofitions to be found 

 in anlient authors, and which have been tranfmitted, from 

 age to age, till the period when mankind began to examine 

 with more accuracy, and to make better observations. 



By multiplying rcfearehes they have been rendered more 

 exact : at p relent there is no neccllity for believing a fact 

 merely becanfe it contains fomething of the marvellous, or 

 is mentioned by fuch or fuch an author. 



Is the horfe without hair, which forms the fubjecl: of this 

 article, to he eonfidered as a new variety in the fpecies, or 

 are the characters bv which this feems to be indicated a mere 

 accident, produced by difeafe, or the effect of art ? The proofs 

 I have obtained, and the obfervations I have made on this 

 animal, incline me to believe that it is an individual of a 

 peculiar variety. (i Inltead of contracting the limits of its 

 power," lays Buffon, fpeaking of nature, " we muft enlarge 

 and extend them even to immenfity ; we mull fee nothing 

 impofiible, we mult i'uppole every thing, and believe that 

 every thing which can be rcallv exifts !" Though the num- 

 ber, indeed, of the travellers who give themfelves the trouble 

 to make obfervations is very incontiderable, we however are 

 daily made acquainted with new facts, and we fee nature 

 extended in proportion as we give extenlion to our rcfearches. 

 By comparing the countries, the productions of which are 

 known with thofe which have not vet been examined bv na- 

 tural ills, it may be eafily perceived that the field which re- 

 mains for us to be palled over is of greater extent than that 

 palled over by our predeceHbrs. If the number of the fub- 

 itances contained in the bowels of the earth, and that of the 

 beings which elude our refearches at its l'urface, is prodigious, 

 may we not alfo believe that there exitt fubftances and beings 

 more eafily to be clifcovered, of which, however, we have as 

 yet no accounts ? 



I mall now relate the hiflorv of the horfe without hair and 

 mane, fuch as I received it. — lie was purchafed, about ten 

 years ago, at Vienna, by a Frenchman named Alpi, formerly 

 employed in the menagefteof Versailles, by whom he was 

 exhibited in feveral towns of Germany with other animals, 

 and afterwards fold, for fifty louis, to the Veterinary School 

 at Berlin. This horfe had been taken from the Turks dining 

 the lad war, and carried by an Aultrian officer to Vienna. 

 Alpi exhibited him under the name of the Horfe of the Nile, 

 and faid he came from Africa. He yoked him to a cart on 

 Which he carried about his animals. Four years ago he was 

 in the Veterinary College of Berlin. 



This horfe appears to me to be about twenty years of age $ 

 C3 he 



