584 TilE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



oblique ; and such form of it usually, but not always, 

 accompanies a deep and capacious chest. The arms, 

 under the above views, should be powerfully formed 

 throughout ; and it is particularly necessary to their 

 freedom of action in the gsllop, that they stand well 

 out, and perpendicularly, as a columnar support. As 

 a summary ; the racer should exhibit the greatest pos- 

 sible quantity of bone, muscle, and sinew, condensed 

 into the smallest possible bulk throughout the whole 

 machine. The body also should b^ sufficiently long to 

 allow of free flexion of the hinder extremities : it is an 

 axiom with the best judges of the racer, that ' there 

 must be length somewhere ;' but the where has occa- 

 sioned some discrepancy of opinion, which arises from 

 not uniting analogy with mechanical principles. It is 

 argued by some, that long legs can propel a short body 

 forward, and which is partially true ; but our most 

 perfect model of speed is the greyhound ; and a very 

 short bodied greyhound is seldom seen, and still less 

 seldom is such a one seen to run well. It is evident 

 that the hinder extremities cannot be carried beyond 

 the extent of the angles allowed by the direction of the 

 bones : if carried further, they would endanger the 

 safety of the articulation, or an injurious pressure on 

 the carcass they propelled. A short body, therefore, 

 is injurious to speed, both by mechanically preventing 

 the full extent of the action of the hinder extremities, 

 and also by losing as much at each stroke of the 

 gallop as is the difference between its length and that 

 of one differently formed ; which, if it were only one 

 inch, yet, when multiplied by a number of strokes over 

 the Beacon course, would amount to an important dis- 

 tance in a closely contested race. 



" Both length and breadth in the hinder quarters 

 have been already proved to be essential to the weli- 



