THE HORSE. 425 



differences in the form of the head, and their bodies and limbs 

 being variously proportioned in adaptation for the uses to which 

 each breed is more especially applied. Wombwell, the zoolo- 

 gical showman, is stated to have had a horse nearly nineteen 

 hands high. If allowed to lie out in the open air during the 

 winter, the horse acquires a long shaggy coat ; but if kept in 

 a warm stable, and particularly if clothed, it retains its usual 

 short and sleek summer coat. Electricity has been several 

 times observed to be emitted from the horse's body; and as 

 this fact is not generally known, a few instances may prove 

 interesting. Mr. John Davidson, in his Notes taken during 

 Travels in Africa (1839), says that a horse which he received 

 from the Sultan of Morocco, displayed electricity on its coat 

 with extraordinary facility. A gentleman while riding between 

 Norwich and Bungay, in a wet night, observed a luminous 

 appearance on the outer edges and tips of his horse's ears ; and 

 the celebrated American professor, Silliman, records that Mr. 

 Whitney of Newhaven, when riding near East Rock, in the 

 vicinity of that town, during a very severe thunder-storm at 

 night, was astonished to see his horse's ears suddenly tipped 

 with fire. Perhaps it was in consequence of having witnessed 

 such a phenomenon (which Mr. J. Murray regards as entirely 

 electrical, and not as being caused by any luminous insect 

 alighting on the animal), that Thompson wrote the following 

 lines : 



" Sent by the better genius of the night, 

 Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane 

 The meteor sits; and shows the narrow path, 

 That winding leads through pits of death, or else 

 Instructs him how to take the dangerous ford." 



The horse breathes through its nostrils only, and not through 

 the mouth; for in the severest exercises, the mouth is never 

 seen open, unless the lower jaw be violently pulled down by 

 force of the bit. This accounts for the great dilation of the 

 nostrils during and after hard running. 



" Those who know anything of the horse pay much attention 



