214 



A HISTORY OF 



ANXXKAX.S OF THE HORSE KIND. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



OF THE HORSE.* 



horse kind deserve a 

 a history of nature. 



ANIMALS of the 

 place next to man, in 



Their activity, their strength, their usefulness, 

 and their beauty, all contribute to render them 

 the principal objects of our curiosity and care; 

 a race of creatures in whose welfare we are 

 interested next to our own. 



Of all the quadruped animals, the horse 

 seems the most beautiful : the noble largeness 

 of his form, the glossy smoothness of his skin, 

 the graceful ease of his motions, and the exact 

 symmetry of his shape, have taught us to re- 

 gard him as the first, and as the most per- 

 fectly formed ; and yet, what is extraordinary 

 enough, if we examine him internally, his 

 structure will be found the most different from 

 that of man of all other quadrupeds whatso- 

 ever. As the ape approaches us the nearest 

 in internal conformation, so the horse is the 

 most remote ; b a striking proof that there may 

 be oppositions of beauty, and that all grace is 

 not to be referred to one standard. 



To have an idea of this noble animal in his 



* As it may happen, that in a description where it is 

 the aim rather to insert what is not usually known, than 

 all that is known, some of the more obvious particulars 

 may be omitted ; I will take leave to subjoin in the notes 

 the characteristic marks of each animal, as given us by 

 Linnaeus. " The horse, with six cutting teeth before, 

 and single-hoofed ; a a native of Europe and the East, (but 

 I believe rather of Africa;) a generous, proud, and strong 

 animal ; fit either for the draught, the course, or the 

 road : he is delighted with woods ; he takes care of his 

 hinder parts; defends himself from the flies with his tail; 

 scratches his fellow; defends his young ; calls by neigh- 

 ing; sleeps after night-fall; fights by kicking, and by 

 biting also ; rolls on the ground when he sweats; eats the 

 grass closer than the ox ; distributes the seed by dunging; 

 wants a gall-bladder ; never vomits ; the foal is produced 



native simplicity, we are not to look for him 

 in the pastures or the stables, to which he has 

 been consigned by man; but in those wild 

 and extensive plains where he has been ori- 

 ginally produced; where he ranges without 

 control, and riots in all the variety of luxurious 

 nature. In this state of happy independence, 

 he disdains the assistance of man, which only 

 tends to servitude. In those boundless tracts, 

 whether of Africa or New Spain, where he 

 runs at liberty, he seems no way incommoded 

 with the inconveniences to which he is subject 

 in Europe. The continual verdure of the 

 fields supplies his wants; and the climate, that 

 never knows a winter, suits his constitution, 

 which naturally seems adapted to heat. His 

 enemies of the forest are but few, for none but 

 the greater kinds will venture to attack him : 

 any one of these he is singly able to overcome ; 

 while, at the same time, he is content to find 

 safety in society ; for the wild horses of those 

 countries always herd together. 



In these countries, therefore, the horses are 



with the feet stretched out; he is injured by being struck 

 on the ear : upon the stiffle ; by being caught by the 

 nose in barnacles; by having his teeth rubbed with tallow ; 

 by the herb padus ; by the herb phalandria ; by the cru- 

 culio ; by the conops. His diseases are different indif- 

 ferent countries. A consumption of the ethmoid bones 

 of the nose, called the glanders, is with us the most in- 

 fectious and fatal. He eats hemlock without injury. The 

 mare goes with foal 290 days. The placenta is not fixed. 

 He acquires not the canine teeth till the age of five j't-ars. 



[ n In South America is found a horse whoso hoofs are 

 divided, like those of a ruminant quadruped In its ge- 

 neral appearance, size, and colour, it resembles the ass, 

 but has the voice and ears of a horse, and has no bat.ds 

 crossing the shoulders. It is very wild, swift, and strong.] 



b Histolce Naturelle, Daubenton, vol. vii. p. 374. 



