1#P THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF 



we finau see that they paid particular attention to the selection 

 of " well-formed, beautiful animals." They very naturally sup- 

 posed that external conformation was transmissible : that if 

 they happened to obtain a good calf or foal, from inferior, dis- 

 eased, or mal-formed parents, it was purely accidental and out 

 of the ordinary course of nature. In selecting beautiful an- 

 imals they naturally excluded those of narrow chest ; which 

 peculiarity is indicative of predisposition to pulmonary affec- 

 tions, and founder (the latter term signifying a worthless or 

 ruined condition, which in the eye of the law renders them ac- 

 tually unsound), because they have that about them which may 

 impair their future usefulness ; hence for more reasons than 

 one, such are unfit for breeding purposes, unless, however, the 

 morbid phenomena be neutralized by blood, in one of the pa- 

 rents, of a superior order ; free from taint as it appears in the 

 other. 



In my adventures in search of the beautiful, I should pass 

 by all animals having any peculiarity of conformation, general 

 or local, which experience teaches me are sure to re-appear, 

 either directly or indirectly, in future progeny. This appears 

 to be the proper course to pursue ; yet many, otherwise intelli- 

 gent men, will invest their money in the purchase of defective 

 animals, merely because they can be bought clieap, when every 

 body knows, or ought to know, that cheap cows, like cheap 

 watches, cost more in the end for repairs, etc., than a commodity 

 of more real value. 



The same rule applies to horses ; some men if they happen 

 to be in possession of a broken-down mare, unable from faults, 

 defects, old age, and disease, to perform ordinary horse duties, 

 they commence a speculation in a different enterprise ; the re- 

 productive organs must be exercised ; just at this time some 

 shrewd cent-and-dollar-calculating jockey, advertises and ex- 

 hibits a well-fed, prancing steed, bearing a popular name ; but 

 his whole carcase is redolent of faults and defects, whicli the 

 owner is not expected to know any thing about, and if he does 

 it is not for his interest to point them out ; the price of copula- 

 tion is dirt cheap, and the foolish speculator expects to obtain a 



