10 FORM AND ACTION. 



take a view of the dips, or reversed arcs. There is but one, but 

 it is a very remarkable one. It commences at the lower part of the 

 neck, extends backward through the interspace between the shoul- 

 der-blades, and terminates where the spine emerges from behind 

 the blade-bones. This must be the weakest part of the spine ; 

 and for this reason Nature has placed it in a situation where it 

 cannot possibly have to support any burthen. No man ever 

 dreamed of riding upon the summit of, or in front of, the withers. 

 This remarkable dip, or downward curve, appears to owe its ex- 

 istence to the two arcs afore-named. Had the spine been con- 

 stituted of one continued arc from end to end, the head must have 

 been inflected downwards, without the power of elevation ; vision 

 no longer could have proved useful in directing the animal on his 

 way ; the back would have been of a most awkward form for the 

 carriage of burthen; the cavities of the chest and belly of a most in- 

 convenient shape and the limbs of enormous length. Had the spine 

 been made straight from head to tail, no elongation of it, and with 

 difficulty any shortening of it, could have been produced, the con- 

 sequences of which must have been a great diminution of that 

 elasticity and power of adjustment for which, in its present form, 

 the structure is so useful and admirable. The beauty of the neck, 

 the freedom of erection and depression of the head, the faculty of 

 looking back and turning round with equal facility and rapidity, 

 would all have been greatly impaired by a spine either directly 

 straight or uniformly curved : in addition to which, none of the 

 actions of the body, in particular gallopping and leaping, could 

 possibly have been performed with the same efficiency they are at 

 present. 



The arc of the spine forming the loins and croup is completed 

 posteriorly by the tail, which, when of its natural length, con- 

 siderably extends it, both backwards and downwards. Then here 

 is another part upon which weight may be imposed with great ad- 

 vantage to the animal : the tail itself will assist in its maintenance, 

 let alone its being placed immediately above the hind limbs or pos- 

 terior columns of support; and the destruction of this arc, when 

 the burthen is intended to be borne by it, forms, there cannot be a 

 question, a decided objection to docking. Asses, we know, with 



