10 THE PRESENT CONDITION 



pie expression. Carry that in your minds, if you please, 

 as a simplified idea of the structure of the Horse. The 

 considerations which I have now put before you belong 

 to what we technically call the ' Anatomy ' of the Horse. 

 Now, suppose we go to work upon these several parts, — 

 flesh and hair, and skin and bone, and lay open these 

 various organs with our scalpels, and examine them by 

 means of our magnifying-glasses, and see what we can 

 make of them. We shall find that the flesh is made 

 up of bundles of strong fibres. The brain and nerves, 

 too, Ave shall find, are made up of fibres, and these 

 queer-looking things that are called ganglionic cor- 

 puscles. If we take a slice of the bone and examine 

 it, we shall find that it is very like this diagram of a 

 section of the bone of an ostrich, though difi'ering, of 

 course, in some details ; and if we take any part what- 

 soever of the tissue, and examine it, we shall find it 

 all has a minute structure, visible onh'- under the 

 microscope. All these parts constitute microscopic ana- 

 tomy or ' Histology.' These parts are constantly being 

 changed; every part is constantly growing, decaying, 

 and being replaced during the life of the animal. The 

 tissue is constantly replaced by new material; and if 

 you go back to the young state of the tissue in the 

 case of muscle, or in the case of skin, or any of the 

 organs I have mentioned, you will find that they all 

 come under the same condition. Every one of these 

 microscopic filaments and fibres (I now speak merely 

 of the general character of the whole process) — every 

 one of these parts — could be traced down to some 

 modification of a tissue which can be readily divided 

 into little particles of fleshy matter, of that substance 



