HOW TO KNOW HIM. 39 



small, but of dense and compact substance, smooth and 

 solid as ivory. I do not care how large the fore-arm is, 

 no* how small the canon-bone is, unless it be so small 

 as to amount to maleformation. Active, energetic, and 

 hardy people are apt to have small wrists and ankles. 

 The prize-fighter's arm and leg, when in his prime con- 

 dition and he stands stripped in the ring, are wonderful 

 for two things, — the apparent smallness of the wrist-bone 

 and ankle-bone near the sockets, and the great mass of 

 swelling muscles packed on above them ; and this is re- 

 garded as the best conformation for agility and strength. 

 Indeed, large bones are associated with, and found most 

 frequently in, men and women of soft, flabby, and 

 lymphatic constitutions. Especially does this hold true 

 in the case of speed. The Indian runner is never a 

 large-boned man. The deer, giraffe, and greyhound are 

 small of limb. Why do men expect Nature to make an 

 exception to this beautiful law in the case of the horse ? 

 On what principle that will bear inspection can this dif- 

 ference be argued ? " There are not many," says an Irish 

 writer, "I imagine, who would admire the human leg 

 with the thick end of it next the ground." 



But, if the canon-bone must not be of too great a size 

 around it, it should be wide when viewed laterally, and 

 thin when viewed from behind. A flat, compact leg- 

 bone, devoid of flesh, with the tendons standing well out 

 from the bone, terminating at the knee in a large flat 

 joint, — this width at the knee-pan affords plenty of space 

 for the attachment of the necessary ligaments, and also 



