SUPERIOR FACE OF THE BODY. 105 



It is essentially defective in the race-horse, because its movements 

 are slow and have but a limited action on the displacements of the 

 centre of gravity. Let us add that the pace lacks amplitude by reason 

 of the defect in the length of the elevator muscles of the shoulder. 

 Horses having short necks owe their speed less to the extent of the 

 movements of the limbs than to their frequent repetition in a given 

 time. 



It is not the same in the draught-horse, in which the work is 

 effected altogether by his weight and the energy of his efforts. A 

 short neck can be redeemed by a firm and powerful muscularity, which 

 will furnish a large surface for the support of the collar and will, at 

 the same time, indicate great power. The brevity of the cervical 

 lever will be compensated again by its horizontal tendency, because the 

 elevator muscles of the scapular angle profit by a more perpendicular 

 insertion, without which the anterior displacement of the centre of 

 gravity of the head would overburden too much the anterior members. 

 In a word, the gait will be slow, whilst the energy of the effort will be 

 carried to its maximum if, as we have said, the region has very vigor- 

 ous muscles. 



From the preceding considerations, we must conclude that each 

 kind of service demands a determined length of the neck : that for ex- 

 treme speed we must have a neck of long dimensions, well carried, and 

 supporting a light head ; that for great and powerful efforts we need 

 weight and muscle, that is to say, a large quantity of contractile ele- 

 ments and these in a voluminous mass ; finally, for ordinary speed and 

 energy, the neck should have intermediate proportions. 



In all cases it must not be forgotten that between the medium and 

 the extremes there is a whole scale of intermediate forms which are 

 neither excessive nor deficient, and that when the neck attains either 

 extreme there are still certain compensations for it perfectly compatible, 

 if not with absolute beauty, at least with energy and vigor. 



Attachments. Those lines which mark the limits of the supe- 

 rior and the inferior borders of the neck constitute what are called its 

 attachments. 



A propos of the head, we have already spoken explicitly of the 

 superior attachment. We know that there is a slight furrow on the 

 external face of the parotid gland ; that the larynx and pharynx are 

 easily lodged in the space between the rami of the inferior maxilla ; 

 that the nape of the neck, the parotid gland, and the throat, as a 

 whole, appear to present between the head and the neck a slight con- 

 striction, whose rounded and graceful profile enables us to surmise_the 



