\4 ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN MAN 



invesligations into every department of nature and in- 

 dustry. Doubtless our ancestors, more than a century 

 ago, were ready to believe — what indolence is ever ready 

 to whisper — that the several races of domestic animals 

 most immediately under their care, had then already been 

 carried up to the maximum of improvability ; yet which 

 of them has not been vastly bettered in the meantime, in 

 all their valuable points — and that, too, not by any sud- 

 den or accidental accession of one or more good quali- 

 ties, but constantly and progressively ; by a closer study 

 and a better knowledge of the laws of animal and 

 vegetable physiology, and by the application of other 

 appropriate sciences. In the plain English of the motto 

 chosen for these reflections what is there said of the 

 Horse may apply to other animals : 



« The knowledge of the external conformation of the 

 horse is much less extended than is generally supposed. 

 It reposes on the study of anatomy, of physiology, of 

 mechanics, and of natural history, in a manner of which 

 few persons have a just conception." 



In 1710, by the estimate of Dr. Davenant, — a writer 

 of unquestioned candour and authority, — the weight of 

 "black cattle" (so called, because, at that day, most 

 cattle were of that colour) averaged but 370 pounds ; the 

 weight of the calf was estimated at 50 pounds; and the 

 average of sheep and lambs, taken promiscuously in the 

 London market, was only 28 pounds. After the lapse 

 of 120 years, — with far less of science applied to the 

 subject than at this time, — M'Culloch, in his dictionary, 

 so highly characterized by the accuracy of its statements, 

 puts the average of cattle at 556 ; sheep and lambs at 

 50; and calves at 105. But the late accomplished Pro- 

 fessor Youatt, in his able work on cattle estimates the 

 average weight now at Smithfield at 656 ; that of sheep 

 iind iambs* at 90; and calves at 144;— -the weight of 



