ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 18 



capable of being fulfilled by breathing flesh and by steaming iron, are 

 altogether separate and distinct. No living body can aspire to con- 

 tend, in strength or in speed, with the results of mechanical contrivance. 

 Neither can the forge or the furnace ever hope to produce any combina- 

 tion of springs and wheels which can compare with the ease of motion, 

 the docility of temper, or the intelligence of spirit that should recommend 

 the quadruped to the kindness of its earthly proprietor. 



The horse is the associate of man. It is true, the poor animal can be 

 goaded to excessive labor ; but the creature becomes degraded when it 

 toils beyond the sphere of mortal sympathy. No living animal should 

 be subjected to the exactions of avarice. Life was not made to be thus 

 debased. What, however, the horse, when properly treated, is capable 

 of performing, remains to be hereafter demonstrated. How much it can 

 enact, and how greatly it can benefit, when justly treated, the present 

 customs refuse the willing drudge a chance of proving. No steed is now 

 permitted to grow till its thews and muscles are matured. Before the 

 season of its utility can come round, the colt is seized upon by the impa- 

 tience of gain, and the baby limbs are distorted by that early affliction 

 which forbids the natural powers to be developed. 



We can, however, even by the inspection of the body, discover that it 

 is admirably adapted for continuous and prolonged exertion. The main- 

 tenance of animal motion chiefly depends on the provision made for 

 aerating the blood. In proportion as the vital current can be revivified 

 or oxygenated is health promoted by those efforts, which in most bodies 

 would, assuredly, induce congestion and death. Age becomes very im- 

 portant when the subject is thus considered. Respiration is in youth 

 quicker than during adultism., because there is so much more oxygen 

 needed when the frame is in a growing state. By working the horse 

 before maturity is attained, the animal is obliged to labor when the 

 ordinary velocity of the respiration permits of the 'less marginal speed for 

 the breathing apparatus to exert upon extraordinary occasions. Never- 

 theless, that the reader may judge correctly of the care nature had be- 

 stowed upon the formation of a creature destined for subserviency to 

 man, the following engraving is appended. 



The accompanying illustration exhibits the lungs as of large propor- 

 tional dimensions ; while the stomach will be recognized as of more than 

 an equally diminished capacity. Everybody must have experienced how 

 greatly respiration is impeded by a loaded digestion ; and the Common 

 Benefactor, when creating an animal destined to display speed, seems to 

 have anticipated the probability of such a contingency. The intestines, 

 however, are comparatively of large extent. Into these receptacles the 

 horse's food passes, after having perfected the first process of digestion, 



