34 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



law of August 2, 1884, which treats of the sale and exchange of 

 domestic animals. This law gives, in fact, the enumeration of all the 

 vices, faults, or diseases reputed redhibitory, — that is to say, which 

 cause a cancelling of the sale or exchange. In other cases, vice results 

 from the bad character of the animal or from his imperfect educa- 

 tion. A horse which bites, strikes, rears, and pulls backward without 

 being induced to do so, is a vicious horse. 



Generally there exists a certain gradation between vices and faults. 

 To the word vice is usually given the sense of a serious moral imperfec- 

 tion ; to the word fault, that of a slight moral imperfection ; finally, to 

 the word defect, that of a physical deficiency more or less serious. We 

 repeat, however, that these three expressions are often employed in the 

 same sense in ordinary language, although they are, as we have just 

 seen, quite clearly defined. 



PART I. 



THE HEAD. 



Divisions. — Situated at the anterior extremity of the trunk, the 

 head represents a resistance placed at the extremity of the arm of a 

 lever formed by the neck, — a resistance whose relative situation, on ac- 

 count of the extensive movements which it executes, has a great 

 influence in changing the position of the centre of gravity. 



Studied as a whole, it presents for consideration four faces, a superior 

 extremity, continuous with the neck, and an inferior, occupied by the 

 oral opening. 



Each one of these primary divisions is subdivided into a number 

 of regions enumerated in Fig. 19. 



Faces. — 1st. The anterior face presents successively, from 

 above to below, the forehead, the face or nose, and the extremity of the 

 nose. 



2d and 3d. The lateral faces present the ear, the temple, the 

 supra-orbit, the eye, the masseteric region, the cheeks, and the nostrils. 



4th. The posterior face offers the branches of the inferior max- 

 illa, the intermaxillary space, and the chin. 



5th. Inferior Extremity. — This is entirely occupied by the mouth, 



