THE HORSE 



HIS ANATOMY— WITH HIS DISEASES AND 

 REMEDIES. 



CHAPTER I. 

 THE ZOOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE HORSE. 



There are so many thousand species of living beings, some so much resembling 

 each other, and others so strangely and altogether different, that it would have been 

 impossible to have arranged them in any order, or to have given any description that 

 could be understood, had not naturalists agreed on certain peculiarities of form which 

 should characterise certain classes, and other lesser peculiarities again subdividing 

 these classes. 



The first division of animals is into verlehrated and invertehraied. 



Vertebrated animals are those which have a cranium, or bony cavity containing the 

 brain, and a succession of bones called the spine, and the divisions of it named vertebras, 

 proceeding from the cranium, and containing a prolongation of the brain, denominated 

 the spinal marrow. 



Invertebrated animals are those which have no vertebrae. 



The horse, then, belongs to the division vertebrated, because he has a cranium or 

 skull, and a spine or range of vertebra3 proceeding from it. 



The vertebrated animals are exceedingly numerous. They include man, quadru- 

 peds of all kinds, birds-, fishes, and many reptiles. We naturally look for some sub- 

 division, and a very simple line of distinction is soon presented. Certain of these 

 vertebrated animals have /na/nwa; or teats, with which the females suckle their young. 

 The human female has two, the mare has two, the cow four, the bitch ten or twelve, 

 and the sow more than twelve. 



This class of vertebrated animals having mammae or teats is called mammalia ,- and 

 the horse belongs to the division vertebrata, and the class mammalia. 



The class mammalia is still exceedingly large, and we must again subdivide it. 

 It is stated (Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. i. p. l.S.) that "this class of 

 quadrupeds, or mammiferous quadrupeds, admits of a division into two Tribes. 



" I. Those whose extremities are divided into fingers or toes, scientifically called 

 unoruiculata, from the Latin word for nail; and 11. Those whose extremities are 

 hoofed, scientifically called ungulala, from the Latin word for hoof. 



"The extremities of the first are armed with claws or nails, which enable them to 

 grasp, to climb, or to burrow. The extremities of the second tribe are employed 

 merely to support and move the body." 



The extremities of the horse are covered with a hoof by which the body is supported, 

 and with which he cannot grasp anything ; and therefore he belongs to the tribe nngu- 

 lata or hoofed. 



But there is a great variety of hoofed animals. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the 

 hippopotamus, the swine, the horse, the sheep, the deer, and many others, are nnp;u- 

 lated or hoofed; they admit, however, of an easy division. Some of them masticate, 

 or chew their food, and it is immediately received into the stomach and digested ; but 

 in others the food, previous to digestion, undergoes a very singular process. It is 

 returned to the mouth to be remasticated, or chewed again. These are called runti- 



(6Ti 



