198 HOKSE AND MAN. 



CHAPTER XII. 



The Professional Eye — Fashion and nature — The curb — Weight and size 

 of bit — The bearing-rein — Three kinds of hearing-rein — The gag 

 bearing-rein — Mechanical parallel — The over-head rein — Neck of the 

 horse — Great ligament of the neck and its attachments — Vertebrae of 

 neck and spine — Vertebrae and railway buffers — Arrangement of a 

 train — The marting-ale — Rattling of harness and tossing of heads — 

 Sir Arthur Helps' opinion — Effect of the gag hearing-rein on the 

 spine and feet — The ' burr ' bit of America — Mr. Henry Bergh's work 

 — The locomotive and the horse. 



What a wonderful product of civilisation is the 

 Professional Eye ! It begins to develop itself as soon 

 as man emerges from pure savagery, contenting itself 

 at first with the nose bone of the Australian, the 

 lip-disc of the Botocudo, and the tattooing of the 

 Marquesan and New Zealand chief. It rests with 

 satisfaction upon the vagaries of fashion, upon the 

 furnishing of our houses, and the decoration of our 

 gardens. Therefore, that our horses should be sub - 

 ject to its sway is only to be expected. 



A few years ago, I met with a treatise on the 

 management of horses, in which the writer gives it 

 as his opinion that a thoroughbred horse, properly 

 harnessed, is the finest sight in the world. This 



