POINTS FROM WHICH THE PROPORTIONS ARE STUDIED. 397 



slender, weak, too long, ill adjusted, in a word, disproportionate in 

 relation with the weight which they have to displace. In this case 

 the most irreproachable body will be powerless ; the machine will be 

 without force, without solidity, without speed, and destined to wear out 

 soon. How many horses are thus constructed, which are said to be 

 defective, wiry, mounted upon match-sticks, perched high, which have fine 

 breeding, vivacity, energy, courage, but which — veritable straw-fires — 

 only last an instant, for want of ability to utilize the mechanism which 

 they possess ! 



They will be recognized by the exaggerated length of their mem- 

 bers, the narrowness and thinness of their forearms, their legs, their 

 knees, their hocks, and their fetlocks, the slimness of their shanks, the 

 weakness of their tendons, and the small volume of their muscles. 

 One way to ascertain their disproportion consists in measuring the 

 distance comprised between the passage of the girth and the pastern- 

 joint. It is known that in a beautiful conformation this distance is 

 equal to a head in horses of ordinary size, a little longer in large 

 horses, and a little less in small ones. (See Relations between the Dimen- 

 sions of the Regions, page 359.) At the same time we should not forget 

 always to take into account the greater length of the locomotory 

 columns in fast horses. 



D. — Relations of the Organism with the Nervous System ; 

 the "Blood;" the Temperament. 



Opinion of the Laity upon the "Blood." — Most horsemen 

 still speak of the blood ^ as a kind of immaterial principle endowing 

 the subject inheriting it with a combination of physical and moral 

 qualities of a superior order. This principle, transmissible by heredity, 

 would be the appanage of the noble races, the English thoroughbred and 

 the Arabian ; again, we are asked to believe that it has been preciously 

 preserved in ail its purity, without deterioration, through a number of 

 centuries, thanks to the care which man has taken to preserve these 

 races from all contamination with those called common, in which it 

 cannot be observed. 



" The pure blood [san^]," writes M. Eug. Gayot,^ " a living, active, 



1 This is a somewhat ambiguous term. Among the partisans of the theory of crossing, the 

 ancient idea is prevalent that the races of the horse are continually degenerating, and that the 

 Aryan (Arabian) race is of pure blood (pur sang) and superior to all the others, which it regenerates 

 by crossing. Hence the term "blood." as here used, indicates the degree of relationship with 

 this race, as shown by certain qualities, both external and internal, possessed by the animals. 



* L. Moll et Eug. Gayot, La connaissance gen6rale du cheval, p. 313, Paris, 188—. 



