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PART 11. 



THE STRUCTURE AND ECONOMY OF THE HORSE. 



CHAP. V. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE. 



[The possession of sensation and voluntary motion are the prin- 

 cipal points which distinguish the bodies of animals from those 

 of vegetables ; for whilst the latter is confined to the soil in which 

 it is located, and derives its subsistence from the surrounding 

 elements, the former have the power of moving from place to 

 place, and of gratifying the various sensations with which they 

 are endowed. The structure of animals is, consequently, much 

 more complicated than that of vegetables ; but in proportion as 

 an animal is low in the scale of creation — as it approaches a 

 state of vegetable existence — we find its structure more simple 

 and its sensations fewer, but its vitality greater. 



In the horse we have a high degree of organisation, and 

 consequently a vast variety of complex structures. 



The body is composed of solids and fluids ; the latter exceed- 

 ing the former in weight in the proportion of six or eight to 

 one. To the solids, however, is owing the organisation of the 

 frame; for they suiTound and contain the fluids. Late anato- 

 mists consider that animals are composed of three forms of tissues, 

 Avliich they have denominated the fibrous, the lamellar, and the 

 globular. The two former are exemplified in the structure of 

 the cellular substance, which composes the greatest portion of 

 the animal fabric : the fibrous is characteristic of the muscular 

 and ligamentous structures : the fibrous, united with the granular, 

 is exhibited in the texture of the glands, and in the medullary 

 substance of the nervous system ; and the globular is shown in 

 the composition of the chyle, the blood, and several of the secre- 

 tions. These several textures being combined together in dif- 

 ferent proportions, we have the various organs of which the body 

 is composed. 



The use of the skeleton is to give support to the animal frame, 

 and afford fixed objects for the attachment of various parts : it 

 is composed in the horse of nearly two hundred bones of various 

 sizes and shapes. These bones, in order to admit of motion, are 

 connected one to another by means of strong bands, called 

 ligaments ; the ends of the bones being constructed in various 



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