ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 51 



numan race ; but if the donkey has to work before man's daily roundl 

 commences, so also do its toils increase after the period of mortal labor 

 has been fulfilled. My readers must recollect to have frequently beheld 

 the coster's tray, now emptied of the green stock of the morning, but 

 occupied by several shouting fellows, and drawn past the windows by a 

 little donkey. The street purveyor of vegetables often travels far to 

 dispose of his wares. But the green stuff distributed, he considers his 

 labors for the day to be ended. He then has time to appreciate his own 

 sensations. He flings his body full length upon the tray, and, with the 

 good nature which belongs to his class, does not refuse a ride to any 

 wayfarer so long as the vehicle can accommodate another passenger. 

 All, then, fully impressed with the popular credulities concerning the 

 donkey, commence shouting and thumping, while the animal, which has 

 been upon its legs before the light began, is forced to travel homeward 

 at a pace which is compelled to be faster in proportion as it may be dis- 

 tant from its lodging. 



In the country, the houses being more separated, the animal is de- 

 prived of the frequent stoppages and the lighter draught of the towns. 

 The pull is heavier, and the distances are longer; but still the donkey 

 must progress until the master has earned a certain sum, without which 

 he rarely turns the creature's head toward his home. If the proprietors 

 of asses have feT7 faiths, they are all thoroughly imbued with one belief, 

 which is, that the animal in their keeping cannot possibly feel exhaus- 

 tion. Their credulity does not stay here. They are impressed with a 

 conviction that no creature of the donkey tribe has any sort of feeling. 

 The quadruped, they know, can bear an unusual amount of beating with 

 the thickest possible bludgeon, and simply requires only the coarsest of 

 refuse for sustenance. Moreover, such conviction leaves the proprietor 

 his own convenience to consider, when imposing burdens on "the beast 

 within his gate." 



The last article of belief makes the man select the weakest portion of 

 his dumb servant's spine for a seat, when he is inclined to play the 

 jockey. The reader, to whose notice diagrams of the equine spine have 

 been submitted, knows that the loins alone are unsupported by other 

 bones. The absence of that which renders this region the weakest divi- 

 sion of the vertebrae, also makes this portion of the quadruped's back 

 the most yielding and elastic. Here the fashion of vulgarity fixes the 

 rider's seat when he strides the ass. The veterinary student will remem- 

 ber that few of the lumbar bones in the carcasses he dissected, when at 

 college, were in their integrity. The author has encountered two, three, 

 and even four bones of the six which compose the part locked together 

 by osseous deposit. 



