OUTLINE OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE. 37 



" Over a great part of the frame lies a muscle peculiar to 

 quadrupeds, and more extensive and powerful in the thin- 

 skinned and thin-haired animals than those with thicker 

 hides. It reaches from the poll over the whole of the car- 

 cass, and down to the arm before, and the stifle behind. By 

 its contraction the skin is puckered in every direction, and 

 if it acts strongly and rapidly, the horse is not only enabled 

 to shake off any insect that may annoy him, but sometimes 

 to displace a great part of his harness, and to render it diffi- 

 cult for the most expert rider to keep his seat. This muscle 

 also assists the skin in bracing that part of the frame which 

 it covers, and, perhaps, gives additional strength to the 

 muscles beneath. It is called the panniculous camosus, or 

 fleshy panuicle or covering. 



" The skin answers the double purpose of protection ai4d 

 strength. Where it is necessary that the parts should be 

 bound and knit together, it adheres so tightly that we can 

 scarcely raise it. Thus the bones of the knees and the pas- 

 terns, and the tendons of the legs, on which so much stress 

 is frequently thrown, are securely tied down and kept in 

 their places. * * * Of its strength we have abundant 

 proof, both in the living and dead animal. Its fibers are 

 interlaced in a most curious and intricate manner, so as, 

 when living, to be scarcely lacerable, and converted into 

 leather after death. 



"It is, while the animal is alive, one of the most elastic 

 bodies with which we are acquainted. It not only perfectly 

 adapts itself to the slow growth or decrease of the body, and 

 appears equally to fit, whether the horse is in the plumpest 

 condition or reduced to a skeleton ; but when a portion of it 

 is distended to an extraordinary degree, in the most power- 

 ful action of the muscles, it, in a moment, again contracts to 

 its usual dimensions. 



"It is principally indebted for this elasticity to almost 

 innumerable minute glands, which pour out an oily fluid that 

 softens and supples it. When the horse is in health, and 

 every organ discharges its proper functions, a certain quan- 



