38 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



The direction of the forehead is closely related to the general 

 form of the head, and varies with the race. It is straight when its 

 surface is rectilinear in every sense ; concave when it is depressed in its 

 inferior portion ; convex when the profile is arched from above to below. 

 These diverse forms designate the head as square, flat, arched, or Aare- 

 faced. We will return to this d propos of the general form of the head. 



The form of the forehead is sometimes modified by the presence 

 of small eminences known under the name of horns, from their analogy 

 with similar appendages observed on animals of the bovine species. 

 The horses which present this anomaly are raA. They are called 

 horned in ordinary language.^ 



We will study, in the article on the robes, the peculiarities relative 

 to the color and disposition of the hairs of the forehead. 



Diseases and Blemishes. — The most common lesions of this region are 

 cicatrices and excoriations resulting from falls, blows, and other traumatisms. 

 Among other affections more rare and more serious are tumefactions which result 

 from diseases of the frontal sinuses. Sometimes cicatrices are situated on the 

 middle or inferior part of its surface to either side of the median line, indicating 

 that trepanning has been practised, with a view of giving exit to pus contained in 

 the sinus. When these are observed, it is necessary to complete our examination 

 by that of the nasal mucous membrane and the submaxillary lymphatic ganglia, 

 because an insidious purulent collection of the sinuses may be a complication of 

 glanders. 



Merche,^ following Bourgelat and many others, mentions a fraud sometimes 

 committed by horse-dealers attempting to mate horses intended for sale. It con- 

 sists in producing a white coloration in the region of the forehead .by cauterizing 

 the skin with a hot iron or with boiling water, etc. The hairs will soon become 

 exfoliated and be replaced by those of a white color. This artifice can be easily 

 detected by the fact that in the centre there is a denuded spot around which the 

 hairs are less numerous than in the surrounding parts. (Bourgelat.) The proof of 

 such a deception is much more detrimental to the reputation of those who employ 

 it than to the value of the animals on which it is practised. 



B.— The Face or Nose (Fig. 19). 



Situation ; Limits ; Anatomical Base. — The face is a sym- 

 metrical region situated on the anterior surlace of the head, limited 

 above by the forehead, below by the extremity of the nose, and on each 

 side by the eye, the cheek, and the nostril. 



of one ear to that of the other. Their relative development gives three classes of foreheads-. 

 1. Brachycephalic (square-headed), when the two measurements are nearly or quite equal: it 

 includes the Aryan, African, Irish, and English (shire) horses; 2. Dolichocephalic (long-headed), 

 when the vertical diameter is in excess, as in the Belgian, Frisian, German, and Percheron races; 

 3. Mesocephcdic, which is intermediary between the two preceding. (Harger.) 



1 A. Goubaux, Note sur les chevaux cornus, in Comptes rendus de la Society de biologie, 

 1852, p. 25. 



2 Merche, Nouveau, Trait6 des formes extSrieures du cheval, p. 16. 



