HOW TO KNOW HIM. 25 



different degrees of speed, up to the racer and trot- 

 ter, the chest must increase in depth compared to its 

 roundness, until, for the highest rate of speed, you must 

 have a chest as deep as a greyhound, and, at the same 

 time, not lacking in breadth. Every breeder should 

 keep this rule in mind when selecting his brood-mares 

 and stallion; for he may be sure that shallow-chested 

 parents never beget deep-chested colts. In order to 

 illustrate the faultiness of the circular chest, an inge- 

 nious writer has put it thus : — 



'' Take, for example," he says, ^' a piece of pasteboard, 

 and form it into a cylinder about six inches in length, 

 and two inches in diameter; leaving it open at both 

 ends, so that it can be compressed equally from end to 

 end. Place one end on a table, and compress two of 

 its sides until the cavity assumes a perfectly oval or 

 elliptical form, and then fill it accurately with fine shot. 

 When it is nicely filled and levelled on the top, re- 

 move the pressure from the sides, so that the pasteboard 

 may again form a perfect cylinder ; and it will be found 

 that the shot is not nearly sufficient to fill the cavity. 

 Now, as the quantity of pasteboard remains exactly the 

 same during the entire experiment, it is quite plain the 

 change of capacity is owing solely to the change of 

 form. 



" Let us suppose, then, that a horse has a perfectly 

 circular chest ; and it will follow, as a necessary conse- 

 quence, that the elevation of the ribs on the side, in 

 place of increasing its capacity, will actually lessen it, 



