ever been esteemed of the highest worth and consequence, and treated with a dis- 

 tinction and attendance befitting his rank as the first of domestic animals, approximat- 

 ing in society and service to human nature. It is among the most savage and 

 debased tribes of men only that the breed, condition and comforts of this noble 

 animal have been neglected. 



"To ascertain the period, or even to form a probable guess on the first domes- 

 tication of the horse, and determine to what nation of antiquity the honor of his subju- 

 gation appertains, although sometimes attempted by the curious and inquisitive, 

 has never returned any other fruit than the labor or amusement of the enquiry. 

 Notwithstanding we are convinced of the fact of his early subjugation, the date 

 of it lies concealed beyond the impassable horizon of a too remote antiquity; in 

 fine, it is one of those truths which stand not in need of proof. It is sufficient that 

 the earliest writer whose works have reached our times describes the horse as having 

 been immemorially in the subjection and servitude of man. 



"Natural historians have agreed to designate the horse by the following 

 Generic character: 



"Front teeth in the upper jaw, six parallel. 



"In the lower jaw, six somewhat projecting. 

 • ^'Canine Teeth, one on each side, in both jaws, remote from the rest. 



''Feet, with undivided hoofs. 



"The horse genus seems to be susceptible of far less variety of form than our 

 other domesticated animals, although applicable to a greater variety of uses. A 

 native of every country in the old world, it forms matter of curious speculation 

 that he should be found in no part of the new, or America, abounding as that im- 

 mense country does, both upon the continent and the islands, with soils and pro- 

 vision so well adapted to his support, and so amply as that fact has been proved by 

 his multitudinous increase in those countries since his first introduction by the Span- 

 iards and other Europeans. 



"Is it, then, that there was one or a limited number of spots upon the earth 

 on which the horse originated, and whence he emigrated or was selected to replenish 

 other regions? There is a very obvious reason which ought to set all such specu- 

 lation at rest — there can exist no physical possibility of reducing them to facts. 

 The non-existence of the horse in America previous to its discovery by the 

 Europeans has, however, been disputed, but I recollect not by whom or upon 

 what ground. 



"In a division of the equine genus into its original and artificial varieties and 

 their appropriations I shall propose the following concise theory, sufficient, I ap- 

 prehend, for every useful or practical purpose. The horse, then, may be rationally 

 supposed to have consisted originally of two grand divisions, or species — the silken- 

 ' haired, flat and fine-boned Courser, and the full-bodied, coarse and rough-haired 

 steed adapted to draft and the most laborious purposes. It is also, indeed, probable 

 that size may have been an original distinction in these and all other animals, since 

 we often see so much perfection and originality of form in the smaller sizes as to 

 render it almost impossible to attribute such accident to degeneration. 



"From the above original species may fairly be derived all those numerous 

 varieties which we at this day witness in different parts of the world. vSoil and 

 climate most indubitably have considerable effects through a long course of ages 

 in producing varieties of form, color character and properties. The largest animals 

 are generally found to be the production of the rich lowlands of temperate climates 

 abounding in rich and succulent food. The fine-skinned, with elegant symmetry, 

 dry and solid bones, large tendons and the highest degree of muscular energy — in 

 fact, bearing the general characteristics of wild animals — are bred under warm and 

 southern skies, upon a dry soil, on the hills in the desert. 



"As we advance toward the ungenial northern climes we find the domestic 



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