CONTRADICTIONS IN THE SYSTEM 235 



attempt to do anything more with the colt, I will give 

 you some of the characteristics of his nature, that you 

 may better understand his motions. Every one that 

 has ever paid any attention to the horse has noticed his 

 natural inclination to smell everything which to him looks 

 new and frightful. This is their strange mode of examin- 

 ing everything." Here is a strange contradiction, since 

 if it is his natural inclination (as before stated) to smell 

 everything, it cannot be a strange method of examining 

 everything. In fact, it is not peculiar to the horse to 

 examine unusual objects by scent as well as touch ; all 

 animals instinctively adopt the same course of proceeding 

 — tame as well as wild — even down to the timid hare. It 

 is imnecessary, therefore, to notice further, " the experi- 

 ment with the rope," or " the suggestions on the habit 

 of smelling." We are told that it is " d, prevailing opinion 

 among horsemen generally that the sense of smell is the 

 governing sense of the horse," with a lot of trash under 

 this head from " Faucher," as weU as others, about the 

 use of oil and drugs, who probably were no horsemen at 

 aU, but merely experimentalists ; although we know that 

 by the use of chloroform a horse may be more effectually 

 tamed for the time than by Mr. Rarey's new method. 



We are next favoured with some lengthy quotations 

 from Mr. WiUis J. Powell's work, pubUshed in Europe 

 about the year 1814, on gentling, or what we call handling 

 the horse, — about stroking his forehead, rubbing and 

 patting his body and limbs, handling his ears, and pulling 

 his tail, which any groom knows how to practise quite as 

 well as Mr. Willis Powell or Mr. Rarey. Then follow the 

 author's own remarks on Powell's system, which it would 

 be sheer waste of time and paper to make any comments 

 upon, being httle more than Powell's story repeated about 



