75 



AN OBJECTION ANTICIPATED. 



Anticipating an objection that might be urged to this view 

 of the case, I concede that the respective functions of the 

 hand of man and the foot of the horse are only parallel to a 

 certain extent ; that the former has endowments of sensibility 

 denied to the latter, while the latter possesses powers and func- 

 tions not enjoyed by the former ; yet different though they may 

 be in some respects, I yet think there is one particular function 

 they enjoy in common, differing possibly in degree, but not in 

 kind, in which the analogy holds good, and that it may be said 

 of the foot of the horse, as it is of the hand of man, that it is 

 pre-eminently the organ of tactility or touch, and the prime 

 medium of communication between the brain and solid objects 

 of the external world. 



EXPERIENTIA DOCET. 



The evidence of experience which I shall adduce may not 

 have much weight with those whose experience with horses in 

 this respect has been limited to what many have been observed 

 among horses whose feet are shod with iron, and traversing only 

 the streets and roads in or near a city. 



Those who, like myself, have traveled in sparsely settled 

 countries, as in the interior of Australia, where the foot of the 

 horse is necessarily innocent of iron, and where horses are 

 " shod according to nature," since nature does the shoeing her- 

 self, and have spent a large portion of their time on horseback, 

 may possibly be able to recall recollections of " hair-breadth 

 escapes by flood and field," due in a great measure to the sa- 

 gacity, the instinct or reason (I know not altogether which) of 

 their equine companions, as I can. I confess that my life has 

 been endangered more than once by my not heeding the warn- 

 ing I received of treacherous ground by the animal's reluctance 

 to move forward in a direct line, and by the folly of overcom- 

 ing that reluctance by whip and spur. 



