14^ HEAD AND NECK, 



outside the body, acts best when it has but little connection 

 with the brain. In fact, the smaller is the comparative size 

 of the brain, the quicker and more accurately are instinctive 

 movements performed. Thus we see animals with, compara- 

 tively, a very small brain, or with none at all, get out of 

 danger, or seize their prey, with an amount of speed and 

 precision which it would be hopeless for any man to attempt 

 to rival ; simply because the action of his instinct is impeded 

 by the influence of a large brain. We find this demonstrated 

 in ourselves, in the case of movements which, like those in 

 fencing, boxing and dancing, for instance, could be executed 

 only slowly and clumsily at first, when they needed the 

 exercise of thought, become capable of being performed with 

 the speed and correctness of a machine, as soon as practice 

 had made them almost automatic. 



The prominent forehead (Figs. 245 and 250), to which I 

 have alluded on p. 143, indicates a large size of the in- 

 tellectual portion {cerebrum, p. 35) of the brain, which at 

 that part of the forehead is covered by only a thin plate 

 of bone. Without wishing to import any of the jargon of 

 phrenology into a discussion on this subject, I may hazard 

 the suggestion that the portion of the brain which is con- 

 secrated to the functions of memory and perceptive power^ 

 as well as the cerebellum (the organ of '' muscular sense," 

 p. 35), lies underneath the upper part of the forehead, where 

 prominence and convexity of the part is a marked beauty, 

 as I have mentioned on p. 145. 



For the foregoing reasons, I do not look upon the posses- 

 sion of a large brain as a desirable '' point " in a horse. 

 Hence, apart from the practical experience I have had, I 

 do not like, as I have just said, a bulging-out condition of 

 the lower part of the forehead, nor a long distance between 

 the eyes and the top of the head (p. 146), both of which 

 peculiarities of conformation point to large brain capacity. 



Top of the Head. — The bone (the occipital crest) at 

 the top of the head should be prominent and well developed, 



