92 MUSCLE — ITS CONSTRUCTION. [BOOK I. 



This substance is tendinous, and the horse which is 

 well kept, having the tendons strong and vigorous, 

 is bold, strong, and " sinewy," moves his limbs with 

 agility, and gets over his work to admiration, by 

 picking his feet off the ground well, and replacing 

 them (as you can see while he is going) within a 

 hair's breadth of the spot you may mark out for 

 them to pitch upon. Deviations occur in certain 

 individuals, which nature seems to have designed 

 as a remedy for some defect or other, either of ori- 

 ginal conformation or acquired deformity. Among 

 the latter our heavy draught cattle may be reckoned, 

 which, after long use at the up-hill drag, invariably 

 overstep the boundary of nature ; so do better bred 

 cattle frequently, which may be misshapen, or not 

 built according to the rule, as low before, step out 

 too far with the hind legs, and endanger forging or 

 over-reaching ; but these being wide at the haunches 

 and narrow before (greyhound fashion) their stretch 

 at full speed is thereby increased. Look at page 39. 

 On the legs, tendon supplies the place of muscle, 

 wholly so in blood-horses, least in the cart-horse 

 breed. Muscle is constituted of blood deposited in 

 the membrane, innumerable small arteries, some of 

 which are invisible to the naked eye, terminating 



within each muscle, by a 

 kind of doubling up, or curl, 

 as shown in the margin ; 

 within each of these a cor- 

 respondent vein is twined, and the whole being 

 covered with the finest membrane constitutes a 



