XCV11I INTRODUCTION. 



thickness or coarseness, as it is termed, of the bones of the 

 extremities, as of the head, limbs, and caudal vertebrse or 

 tail. A thick and large head, massy limbs below the hock 

 and knee, and a thick tail, may indicate strength and large 

 muscles ; but they do not manifest that peculiar delicacy of 

 form which experience shews to exist in an animal that can 

 be fattened with facility. 



Besides those indications of a tendency to fatten readily, 

 which are exhibited by the conformation of the animal, there is 

 one of essential importance indicated by the touch. The skin 

 is found to be soft, and, as it were, expansive. This property 

 differs from mere thinness of the integuments, which, as in- 

 dicative of want of hardiness, would be regarded as a defect. 

 It is a softness combined with elasticity, conveying the idea 

 of a fine membrane spread over a soft cushion. The differ- 

 ence between the mellow feel, as it has been termed, of an 

 animal which fattens readily, and the hard inexpansive skin 

 of an animal which does not possess this property, is readily 

 discriminated. 



These characters, the broad chest and expanded trunk, 

 the fineness of the bones of the extremities, and the soft ex- 

 pansive integuments, have been found indications of the 

 property of secreting the fatty tissue in all the animals which 

 we domesticate. They extend to the horse, the rabbit, the 

 domesticated fowls, and even to the dog, nay, it is believed, 

 to the human species. In the most numerous kennel of 

 hounds, we should have little difficulty in pointing out, by 

 means of the wide chests, the round bodies, and soft skins, 

 all the individuals which became the most quickly fattened 

 by the food consumed by them. 



The Horse may, for the uses for which we design him, be 

 too much loaded with muscle and fat. This can never be to 

 the degree of being defects in the animals which we rear for 

 the production of these substances. The greater the volume 

 of muscular and fatty substance which such an animal bears, 

 and the larger the space which his body occupies in proportion 

 to his limbs, the more adapted is his form to the uses to which 



