56 FORM AND ACTION. 



wings." An old saying is in vogue, that the future tallness of the 

 colt may be foretold by measuring the distance from the elbow to 

 the fetlock, and carrying the same measurement upwards from the 

 elbow upon the withers : both distances will be equal at the com- 

 pletion of growth ; whatever, therefore, is, at the time of admea- 

 surement, wanting in the upper line will have to be made up by 

 growth, or, in other words, will constitute what the animal has yet 

 to rise in the withers. A good deal of faith is put in this presumed 

 attainment of certain proportions ; and, for my own part, I can say 

 I now attach sufficient credit to it to put the comparative measure- 

 ment into experimental practice.* According to the table — com- 

 piled from the scanty, though not, I believe, faulty records I have at 

 hand — there is not more than one horse out of eight or nine that 

 does not continue his growth after the third or even the fourth year 

 of his age ; whereas, after the second year, the proportion dimi- 

 nishes to one in seventeen or eighteen ; and, at the fifth year, in- 

 creases to one in five or six. There are seven instances registered 

 of horses growing after six years old; and one after the seventh 

 year of age. 



One instance stands recorded in the table of a two-year-old colt 

 having made the extraordinary rise of 1\ inches by the time he 

 had completed his growth. He measured 15 hands 3J inches as 

 a two-year-old, and at the adult period, seven or eight years of age, 

 had attained the enormous height of 17 hands 3 inches. He was 

 a long-legged, ill-proportioned animal, with high spirit and very 

 good carriage of himself, and for this latter reason proved a plea- 

 sant horse to ride, though by no means a strong one. In regard to 

 the quantum of growth likely to be made after the respective ages 

 of 2, 3, and 4, on the average, one inch appears by the table to 

 have been acquired after the second year, ^d of an inch after the 

 third year, and ^d after the fourth year. 



I submit these computations with considerable diffidence, on 

 account of the limitedness of the records from which I have — in 

 the absence of more — been forced to take them. In its present 

 imperfect state the table may serve as some sort of guide for rough 

 calculations, and to direct us in future inquiries. 



* I am about entering on some experimental observations, through which I 

 hope to throw some light on this interesting point. 



