ANTERIOR FACE OF THE HEAD. 37 



more consequence. It is true that in the animal scale the development 

 of the encephalon is in relation with that of the intelligence ; but we 

 are not justified to conclude with the positive assertion, that in isolated 

 individuals of the same species this relation is still constant. Con- 

 tradictory observations against the argument are numerous in man, in 

 whom the facts have been well studied. In the horse, such seem to be 

 the facts by the concurrence of the authors who have adhered tothis 

 theory. Vallon 1 reports that at the great cavalry school at Saumur, 

 where large numbers of vicious and unyielding horses from the army 

 are sent, there are many which, compared with others, are not deficient 

 in the transverse measurement of the forehead. The intelligence, 

 therefore, is not in constant relation with the width of this region. 

 Some subjects, without doubt, are more endowed with this faculty than 

 others ; but it is a fact which can only be proved by following the 

 animals in their future career. 



Among the Arabians the forehead is regarded as one of the four 

 principal characteristics of the horse. This maxim is true, but for 

 reasons very different from those which they have invoked. 



Again, the forehead should be wide because its transverse develop- 

 ment indicates that of the temporal muscles and of the frontal sinuses, 

 dependencies of the respiratory apparatus. Theoretically, a strong 

 muscularity of a certain region is always an absolute beauty, for 

 not only does it indicate a great aptitude for the execution of its par- 

 ticular function, but it is also a sign of muscular puissance of the loco- 

 motory system in general. For analogous reasons a spacious frontal 

 sinus is to be sought, as the dimensions of one organ are proportional 

 to those of the other organs in the same organic apparatus. From the 

 principle that the function makes the organ it will follow that the 

 more developed it be the more perfect will its function be. 



It is for this reason that spacious sinuses are an absolute beauty, 

 and not, as Merche 2 thinks, because their object is " the exaltation of 

 the sense of smell." The olfactory cells exist not in the mucous mem- 

 brane of the sinuses, but in the pituitary membrane along the course 

 of the first pair of encephalic nerves. 



In the young animal, as the foal and the colt, the forehead is very 

 prominent, from the fact that the sinuses have not acquired the same 

 capacity that they will have, from the absorption of bone, as the animal 

 advances in age. 3 



1 Vallon, Cours d'hippologie. t. i. p. 306. 



2 Merche, Nouveau Traite des formes exterieures du cheval, p. 15, Paris, 1868. 



3 The vertical diameter of the forehead is the distance between the external angle of the eye 

 and the base of the corresponding ear; the transverse diameter is the distance from the base 



