FORM AND ACTION. 



THE SKELETON OF THE HORSE. 



The bones of which the body is composed, divested of their flesh 

 or muscle and other soft parts, and connected together in their na- 

 tural order, constitute the skeleton or osseous fabric of an animal : 

 to this the fleshy parts are attached, by it the bowels are supported 

 and protected, and from different parts of it project levers, by whose 

 means, through the agency of the muscles or moving powers, loco- 

 motion is performed. 



The contemplation of the skeleton of the horse — or, indeed, other 

 quadruped — presents to the mind a figure too irregular to admit of 

 any comparison save to the animal of which it once formed the 

 framework. It is constituted of a part we call the body, but which 

 is strangely deficient about the loins ; supported by four columns 

 or legs ; and has attached to it, in front, the neck and head ; behind, 

 the tail. This is the view the superficial observer might take of 

 the skeleton ; but it is not the view which will answer the ends 

 of science, or convey to our mind those notions of its fabric upon 



