NATURAL HISTORY. 57 



Animals when very weak, hardly or ever lie down. One might be 

 surprised at it ; but it is very evident why it should be so. Because, 

 when very weak, they find great difficulty in rising ; almost impossibility. 

 Now this as an idea they cannot possibly have [i. e. they cannot be sup- 

 posed to foreknow their inability to rise]. But, what answers the 

 purpose, or what produces this intended effect, is the difficulty in lying 

 down ; which difficidty, of course, keeps them upon their legs ; the 

 thing intended. When they can no longer rise it is all over with 

 them. 



Loose Notes and Queries on the Limbs of Animals. 



Do animals which use their fore legs as arms, clasp their young to 

 their breast, besides those that have their nipples in that situation ? 

 Is this [clasping to the breast] an instinctive principle at large, or is it 

 only an instinctive principle arising from the situation of the breasts ? 



Hares and rabbits never use their hind legs alternately, but always 

 together. This arises from the great disproportion between the length 

 of their fore and hind legs ; for the fore legs are only used to catch the 

 body when it falls, but the hind legs are used to give the body the 

 spring forwards. 



Progressive Motion of the Newt. 



The water-newt lifts its right fore foot, then its left hind foot ; after 

 its left fore foot, then its right hind foot. 



Animals have numbers of legs in proportion to the length of hori- 

 zontal body they have to support. 



On Horses. 



The breeders of horses ought to observe well and early the manner 

 in which colts use their legs, especially their fore legs. If a colt is 

 inclined to go near the ground, he should never be turned out on a 

 smooth common, but on such places as are very rough. This brings him 

 into the habit of raising his feet high. If he is inclined to point his 

 toe down, so as to make him, from that alone, trip, he shoidd be shod 

 early, and the shoes made thick before and thin behind, to give him a 

 habit to raise his toe, as we find that women acquire a habit of lower- 

 ing their toes by being high shod behind. If he is apt to turn his toes 

 out, he should be early shod, thick on the inside and thin on the out, 

 in one foot, two, or all four feet, if necessary. When a horse is hot 

 and let stand, he should have a cloth thrown over him, which prevents 

 quick evaporation : by which means he does not so readily catch cold, 



