PREFACE, 



BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 



IN undertaking, at the instance of the American publishers, to prepare 

 a new edition of the last London copy of the work here presented, on 

 fte HORSE ; it has been my endeavour to adapt it more exactly to the 

 circumstances of our own country ; and by omitting some portions ol 

 the original, not immediately illustrative of the principal subject, to 

 reduce the volume, without impairing its value for practical uses. 



Few things have occurred, serving better at once to characterize and 

 accelerate the march of intellect and benevolence which distinguishes 

 the age in which we live, than the well-known formation, in England, 

 of a " SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE ;" composed 

 as it is, of men of the highest repute in the various departments of learn 

 ing and industry ; headed by Lord Brougham. 



Their proceedings, as far as published, all show them to be animated 

 by a generous desire to collect, simplify, and publish in the cheapest 

 form, the latest and most authentic discoveries and improvements in 

 science, and in arts promotive of the comfort and happiness of the 

 human race. Under their auspices, several series of publications have 

 appeared, one of which is denominated the " FARMER'S SERIES." Of 

 this class, the first is the book on the HORSE. That the Horse should 

 have been placed at the head of the list of domestic animals, having in 

 view a treatise on the breeds, properties and uses of each, is a distinc- 

 tion to which he is justly entitled, in reference as well to the beautiful 

 symmetry of his form, and his extraordinary physical powers, as to his 

 admirable docility of temper, and high moral qualities, fitting him 

 eminently for the various purposes of pleasure and of business. 



In the work to which we are now introducing the reader, pruned, as 

 it has been, of some preliminary chapters, he will find little to amuse 

 him, of a character merely curious and speculative ; the mysteries of 

 charlatanry, and the nostrums of empiricism, have been carefully 

 excluded ; and where terms of anatomical and medical science have 

 been necessarily employed, they are explained, and applied with a degree 

 of plainness and precision, which bring them within the ready compre 

 hension of every reader 



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