124 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Gervase Markham, entitled ' How to Choose, Hide, Traine, and 

 Dyet both Hunting and Running Horses.' It at first formed part 

 of his * Discourse of Horsemanshippe,' 1593, but in 1596 was 

 separately printed under the title just quoted. The same writer 

 is to be credited with the first English work on ' Cavalry,' of 

 which the title has been already given. In regard to the natural 

 history and external form of the Horse, we have perhaps the 

 earliest English specimen in Topsell's ' Historie of Foure-footed 

 Beastes,' 1607, although manifestly a compilation from older 

 authors of different nationality. 



As already intimated, English books on the Horse number not 

 far short of a thousand, of which very nearly one-half have been 

 printed since 1850 ; while, even as we write, fresh works and new 

 editions are everywhere appearing. 



Our French neighbours are not far behind us ; for we have 

 been able to count 919 works by French authors on the Horse, 

 of which 105 were printed before 1800, 30 more in the next 

 quarter of a century, 204 in the succeeding quarter, and since 

 1850 no less than 580 ; so that, although prior to 1800 there 

 were nearly twice as many English as French books on the 

 Horse, during the last five and thirty years the latter have 

 exceeded the former by 116. 



But in voluminous writing on this special subject the 

 Germans have distanced all competitors. Less active than our 

 own countrymen before the commencement of the present 

 century, when they had produced only 142 different works, they 

 added 275 in the next quarter of a century, and 256 more by 

 1850, since which date a further contribution of 579 has been 

 issued, making in all, to 1886, no fewer than 1252. In regard to 

 the subject matter of these, we find more books relating to 

 anatomy, veterinary practice, and cavalry than exist in England, 

 but fewer relating to hunting, and, as might be expected, to 

 racing. Those dealing with equitation are perhaps a trifle more 

 numerous, but on this subject, as well as on breaking, training, 

 and stable management, the authorship is pretty equally divided. 



The Dutch literature relating to horses is not very extensive, 

 and Capt. Huth's bibliography does not enable us to count more 

 than 30 works in this language. Next to the French, who stand 

 third on the list after the Germans and English, the 'greatest 

 number of works have been written in Italian and Spanish, the 



