412 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



down, refuse to partake of their ration, and for several days are not in 

 a condition to resume their service." If, on the contrary, the common 

 element predominates over the blood, there is a lack of physiological 

 excitability. The setting-up of the machine may still be good, its 

 substance of an excellent quality, its mechanical arrangement harmo- 

 nious, but the stimulant is defective. Although endowed with a cer- 

 tain stamp of fineness and some appearance of energy and vigor, the 

 subject, according to a vulgar expression, is a good-looking swindler ; 

 he is the picture-horse of the dealers. If he be more common still, 

 his form, although regular, is heavy, fleshy ; his muscles voluminous 

 but flabby, containing a large quantity of connective tissue or fat ; his 

 skin is thick ; his hoof soft ; his temperament lymphatic ; his gait 

 indolent ; his physiognomy without expression ; his extremities are 

 common ; his hairs and mane abundant, stiif, coarse ; his feet volu- 

 minous, badly conformed ; he is without reaction, without ardor ; at 

 each moment he must be urged on by words, whip, or spur ; finally, 

 he endures fatigue and privations poorly ; he is a wretched servant, 

 eating much, often sick, and on the whole, renders a service, entirely 

 unsatisfactory. 



CHAPTER III. 



RESULT OF BEAUTIFUL PROPORTIONS UPON THE ANIMAL MACHINE. 



Resistance to fatigue : endurance. Every animated motor, from 

 the action of its machinery and its organs, is capable of producing 

 certain effects, developing force, speed, or both at the same time, and 

 of manifesting its activity more or less easily according to the nature 

 and arrangement of its principal parts. But it is important that its 

 effects be combined in such a way that man may be able to employ 

 them economically, — that is to say, in all their intensity and for the 

 longest time possible. In a word, it is necessary that they terminate, 

 through their reciprocal concordance, in a useful and durable mechan- 

 ical result: to the latter has been given the name endurance. 



Opinion of the Laity upon Endurance. — In ordinary 

 language, endurance, like the temperament and the blood, is that, 

 in a manner, mysterious, concealed, hidden faculty which one animal 

 seems to have in reserve, and by the aid of which he resists fatigue 

 better than another horse. This occult power arms him for the 



