308 BLOOD STANDS THE TEST. 



the course of their practice, they have found, that, 

 generally speaking, the high-bred man bears any 

 serious operation with more fortitude than the 

 ploughman, and the most delicate female shows the 

 same superiority over the coarsest cook. This of 

 course does not arise from the high-bred person 

 feeling less pain than the others : on the contrary, 

 the same blow that would injure a delicate frame 

 would scarcely be felt by the one rendered robust by 

 weather and hardened by habit ; but when the knife 

 of the surgeon causes the same share of pain to be 

 felt by each subject, the complaints are generally 

 much louder with the coarse than with the delicate 

 one ; the suffering is as great with the one as with 

 the other, but the fortitude is not. 



Thorough-bred horses indubitably endure suffering 

 far better than the common cart-horse. It is true 

 that the stroke of the whip that scarcely takes effect 

 on the latter, would set the former plunging or run- 

 ning away. This arises from two causes the think- 

 ness of the skin of the one in comparison with that of 

 the other; but still further, from the different dis- 

 positions, habits, and activity of the two animals. It 

 is a greater annoyance to the cart-horse to accelerate 

 his pace than it is to feel the whip. The high-bred 

 horse would rather go at his full speed than feel the 

 touch of it ; and yet, when the whip is really applied, 

 as it sometimes is in a closely contested race, it is 

 only the thorough-bred that will go under its punish- 

 ment ; the cocktail shuts up. 



.We rarely find thorough-bred horses kick in har- 

 ness or kick at the whip : they run away from it. So, 

 far as my experience goes, I never met with a 

 thorough-bred a rank kicker in harness : the worst 



