102 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Horses. 



genus, Dichobunes, contains three species, D. lepo- 

 rinum, murinum, and obliquum : the first about the 

 size of a hare ; the other two, of a guinea-pig. They 

 appear to have had much of the form, and probably 

 of the habits, of the little musk-deer, or chevro- 

 tains. 



Genus Equus. — This genus, which contains the 

 Horse and its immediate relatives, presents us with 

 a Solidungulous group of Pachyderms, of which the 

 utility of some to man scarcely requires to be 

 pointed out. These animals have but a single toe 

 on each foot. The fore-arm (see skeleton, Fig. 444*) 

 consists of a single bone, made up, it is true, of an 

 ulna and radius, but the ulna is only to be traced in 

 the olecranon process showing itself as a fixed 

 appendage to the radius at the elbow-joint. The 

 carpus consists of seven bones, and to these suc- 

 ceeds a long metacarpal bone, in one solid piece, 

 called the canon-bone : to this succeed three 

 phalangal bones, forming one digit; the first is 

 termed the pastern, the second the coronet or 

 crown-bone, the last the coffin-bone, which is in- 

 closed in a hoof of thick, firm horn. On this the 

 horse treads with an elastic step resulting from the 

 oblique position of the bones of the leg and foot, 

 but especially from the yielding of the pastern, its 

 elasticity being provided for by a ligament which 

 passes down the canon-bone and along the pastern 

 to the coffin-bone. The expansibility of the hoof 

 must not be overlooked; it is essential to a free and 

 safe step, but is too often irreparably injured by the 

 mode of shoeing pursued by farriers. Under the 

 coffin-bone, forming a sort of sole, is a part called 

 the frog, consisting of an elastic, fatty cushion, 

 covered by a triangular elevation of horn ; at each 

 step the frog yields beneath the superincumbent 

 pressure, and, swelling out laterally, expands the 

 heels of the hoof. This frog ought always to touch 

 the ground : it does so naturally ; and where bad 

 shoeing prevents it, the crust of the hoof bearing- 

 all the weight of the body, and the shock of every 

 step as the animal trots along a hard road, inflam- 

 mation and disease ensue. It has been said, that 

 the canon-bone of the horse, representing the meta- 

 carpus (and the same observation applies to the 

 canon or metatarsal bone of the hind-leg), consists 

 of a single piece: there is, however, on each side 

 at its inferior extremity a slender styloid-bone, 

 narrowing as it proceeds to a point. These must be 

 regarded as the rudiments of two additional meta- 

 carpal bones. 



The dentition of the genus Equus is as follows : 



T • 6 . . 1—1 , 6—6 



Incisors - canmes in male ^ — r, molars ^ — 5 == 40. 

 6 1 — 1 6—6 



The incisors in youth have broad edges channelled 

 out into a cavity, which by degrees becomes ob- 

 literated. The molars have square crowns, sharply 

 edged with enamel, in a crescent form ; the 

 canines are only in the males. Many tricks are 

 played by horse-dealers, to give apparent age to 

 a colt, and thereby enhance its value ; and, after 

 maturity, to give to the teeth that appearance which 

 they would have when the prime of strength and 

 vigour was just attained to. The following observa- 

 tions from the 'Penny Cyclopaedia' are very ex- 

 cellent : — 1 



"The honest mouth of a three-year-old horse 

 should be thus formed : — the central incisors or nip- 

 pers are palpably larger than the others, and have 

 the mark on their upper surface evident and well 

 defined. They will however be lower than the 

 other teeth. The mark in the next pair of nippers 

 will be nearly worn away, and that in the corner 

 nippers will begin to wear. 



" At three years and a half the second nippers will 

 be pushed from their sockets, and their place gradu- 

 ally supplied by a new pair ; and at four and a halt' 

 the corner nippers will be undergoing the same 

 process. Thus at four years old the central 

 nippers will be fully grown ; the next pair will be 

 up, but will not have attained their full height ; and 

 the corner nippers will be small, with their mark 

 nearly effaced. At five years old the mark will 

 begin to be effaced from the central teeth, the next 

 pair will be fullv grown, and the blackness of the 

 mark a little taken off, and the corner pair will be 

 protruding or partly grown. 



"At this period, or between the fourth and fifth 

 year, another change will have taken place in the 

 mouth; the tushes will have begun to appear. 

 There will be two of them in each jaw, between the 

 nippers and the grinders, considerably nearer to the 

 former than the latter, and particularly so in the 

 lower jaw. The use of these tushes in the domesti- 

 cated state of the horse is not evident ; but they 

 were probablv designed as weapons of offence in the 

 wild state of the animal. Attempts are too fre- 

 quently made to hasten the appearance of the 

 second and the corner teeth, and the gum is often 

 deeply lanced in order to hasten the appearance of 

 the tush. . 



" At six years old the mark on the central nippers 



will be diminished, if not .obliterated. A depres- 

 sion and a mark of rather brown hue may remain, 

 but the deep blackened hole in the centre will no 

 longer be found. The other incisors will also be 

 somewhat worn, and the tush fully developed. 



" At seven the mark on the next pair of incisors 

 will have nearly disappeared and the tush will be 

 rounded at the point and the edges. 



" At eight the mark will have disappeared from 

 all the incisor teeth, and the tush will be evidently 

 rounder and blunter." 



In the horse there are warty callosities on the 

 inner aspect of the fore and hind legs ; in the other 

 species, on the fore legs only. The lips are muscu- 

 lar and prehensile, and the muzzle hairy. 

 443.— The Horse 



(Equus Caballus). We present at one view a group 

 of British horses, which cannot fail to interest those 

 who admire this noble animal, and are aware (and 

 who is not ?) of the excellence of our breeds. Fig. 

 443 : a represents the Welsh poney ; b, the Shetland 

 poney ; c, the Cart Horse ; d, the Hunter ; <?, the 

 Racer. Fig. 444 is the copy of a horse's head, 

 from a fragment in the Elgin Marbles, British 

 Museum, which will serve to give an idea of 

 the characters of the war-horse of ancient Greece, 

 and which forcibly calls to mind the splendid 

 description in the book of Job—" Thou hast given 

 the horse strength, thou hast clothed his neck with 

 thunder" (Job xxxix. 19 — 25); or that of Vir- 

 gil — « Turn siqua sonum procul arma dedere," &c. 

 (' Georg.' lib. hi., line 83, et seq.) 



A natural question at the outset of our description 

 of the horse suggests itself; it is one, however, 

 which has been often asked, but which is not easy 

 of solution. What is the origin of our domestic 

 horse; and at what period, and by what people, 

 was it first reclaimed? We may at once state that 

 the origin of the domestic horse is unknown, and 

 probably does not exist. The troops of wild horses 

 which scour the deserts of Tartary are regarded by 

 naturalists, and with justice, as the descendants of 

 a domesticated stock ; and the herds of horses which 

 roam over the plains of South America are con- 

 fessedly derived from horses introduced by the 

 Spaniards, according to Azara, in 1535. It is a 

 hazardous opinion, but some have been disposed 

 to entertain it, that the horse as now existing is not 

 the pure descendant of a single species, but a 

 factitious being, the result of a mixture of closely- 

 allied primitive species, whose hybrid offsprings, 

 possessing prolific powers, have again and again 

 blended together, till, by care, climate, and soil, the 

 distinct breeds have been formed which are now 

 spread over different parts of the globe. How far 

 this hypothesis, which was entertained by Pallas and 

 others, approximates to the truth it is impossible 

 to say ; certain it is that no primitive species of 

 horse, no wild descendant of the original stock, is 

 now existing. Whatever it once was, it exists no 

 longer ; nor know we when or under what circum- 

 stances it vanished from the face of the earth. Of 

 what country is the horse originally a native? 

 According to Mr. Bell, who considers it " at least 

 highly probable that the Egyptians first reduced the 

 horse under human subjugation, it is to the same 

 country, or at least to those parts of Africa which 

 were in close relationship to it, that we may rea- 

 sonably look for its native locality before that 

 event." It may be so ; out we cannot help think- 

 ing that the wild horse (if specifically the same) 

 was spread over many countries: nor is it per- 

 haps too much to suspect that the bones found 

 so abundantly in superficial gravels, sands, and 

 clays, &c, may be, some of them at least, the 

 relics of the primitive race, from which the modern 

 stock has descended ; but which has, after giving 

 to man a reclaimed progeny, passed utterly away. 

 With respect to the ox, Cuvier maintains a similar 

 theorv, and Mr. Bell leans to the same opinion : 

 " In this country," he observes, " and in many parts 

 of the Continent, have occurred numerous fossil 

 bones of oxen, with large horns," &c. ; and he adds, 

 "I cannot but consider it as extremeiy probable 

 that these fossil remains belonged to the original 

 wild condition of our domestic ox — an opinion which 

 Cuvier appears to have entertained, who calls the 

 skulls ' cranes semblables a ceux d'un bceuf domes- 

 tique.' They are found only in very recent de- 

 posits, mingled with the remains of various other 

 animals." 



It is generally supposed that the Egyptians were 

 the first who reclaimed the horse, and this opinion 

 is founded on the circumstance that in Scripture the 

 first notice of the horse is in connection with Egypt, 

 when Joseph attained to power and dignity, and that 

 at a subsequent period Egypt supplied Solomon with 

 horses. Certainly the horse was at an early period 

 domesticated in Egypt, and used as an arm of war, 

 and on state occasions : " And he (Pharaoh) made 

 him (Joseph) ride in the second chariot which he 

 had" (Gen. xli. 43) ; and during the seven years' 



famine Joseph not only sold corn out of the royal 

 granaries for money, but "gave them bread in ex- 

 change for horses" (Gen. xlvii. 17) ; and no doubt 

 Egypt had a noble breed. In their contests, how- 

 ever, for the Promised Land, we find the Israelites 

 brought in collision with the Canaanites, Amorites 

 and others, in whose armies were " horses, and cha- 

 riots very many" (Joshua xi. 4) ; and we read 

 that " he houghed their horses, and burned their 

 chariots with fire" — so that other nations of that 

 period besides the Egyptians employed this animal, 

 and in the same manner. As far back as the re- 

 cords of history conduct us, we find the Scythians 

 possessed of horses and celebrated as horsemen. 

 Was the Scythian breed anciently obtained from 

 Egypt ? The Babylonians possessed vast numbers 

 of horses : Tritantcechmes, a Satrap of Babylonia, 

 possessed, in addition to his war-horses, 800 for 

 private use, and 16,000 brood mares. India pos- 

 sessed horses, and assisted Xerxes with cavalry and 

 chariots of war ; some drawn by horses, others by 

 wild asses. The Bactrians and Caspians also brought 

 cavalry and infantry. (Herodotus.) The same au- 

 thor, speaking of the products of India, viz. quadru- 

 peds and birds, which are larger than those of any 

 other country, excepts the horse, which is surpassed 

 in size by the Niscean horse of the Medes, of which 

 ten gorgeously caparisoned added to the splendour 

 of Xerxes's array ; and Strabo expressly asserts that 

 there was a dispute as to whether the Niscean horse 

 was a native of Media or Armenia, as specimens of 

 the breed were to be found in both countries. 

 Leaving undecided, as it ever must be, the origin 

 and original country of the horse, we may observe, 

 that at an early period the horse was used in our 

 island. When Julius Ccesar invaded our shores, he 

 was opposed not only by infantry, but by horsemen 

 and charioteers ; and the skill with which the horses 

 and chariots were managed excited the great war- 

 rior's admiration — a circumstance sufficient to prove 

 a long acquaintance with the animal, as well as 

 that the Britons in Caesar's time were more ad- 

 vanced in social refinement than some historians 

 have admitted. We do not know with certainty 

 the characters of the ancient British horse ; yet, from 

 the rapid movements of the cavalry and the man- 

 ner in which the charioteers dashed along, we may 

 readily infer that the horses were light, strong, 

 docile, and spirited; probably they much resembled 

 those used by the Cossacks of the Don and Wolga 

 at the present day. They were at all events highly 

 valued, and were exported, together with British 

 mastiffs, to Rome. 



We know that the Romans possessed an excellent 

 breed of horses, and paid great attention to them. 

 In modern Italy the breed is crossed with the barb 

 from the North of Africa ; at least, the horses used 

 for light work, the saddle, and trials of speed, are 

 of this mixture, and the term barbari is given to 

 them. These barbari are small, generally rather 

 under than over fourteen hands, clean limbed, well 

 formed, compact, and spirited, giving evidence of 

 good blood. The barb is an offset of the Arab race, 

 and is greatly mixed with the best Andalusian stock 

 in Spam. 



The Persian horse closely resembles the Arab, 

 but is generally taller. M. Huzard states that in 

 the north of Persia a race of horses exists stronger 

 than the Normandy horse, and which are fed on the 

 vast plains of Chirvan and Mazenderan. He adds 

 that these horses are in great request for the Persian 

 cavalry. 



The best horses in India are of Arabic or Persian 

 descent. In Moore's ' Notices of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago,' we are assured that in every country lying 

 east of the Burrampooter and south of the tropic, 

 the horse, however diversified, is little better than a 

 poney. 



This fact, after quitting Bengal, is first noticed 

 in the countries of Cassay, Ava, and Pegue. Here 

 the horse seldom equals thirteen hands high, but is 

 active, spirited, and well formed. As we proceed to 

 the south and east, the horse becomes more diminu- 

 tive, and those of Lao, Siam, and the southern pro- 

 vinces of China are inferior in size and beauty to 

 those of Ava and Pegue. The Siamese and Cochin- 

 Chinese have no cavalry, and make no use of their 

 poneys except for riding on ordinary occasions. Even 

 for this last purpose they are not esteemed, the ele- 

 phant being always preferred as a more respectable 

 and dignified mode of conveyance. In the Malayan 

 Peninsula there are no plains or roads, and the in- 

 habitants, living almost exclusively on the low and 

 woody banks of the rivers, naturally substitute their 

 canoes and boats for beasts of carriage and burden, 

 and hence the horse has not yet been naturalised 

 amongst them. Proceeding eastward in the Ma- 

 layan Islands, the horse first occurs in the interior 

 of Sumatra, and here we have two of the best 

 breeds known in those countries, the Achin and 

 Batta, both very spirited, but small, and better suited 

 for draught than the saddle. 



Of alfthe countries of the Archipelago the horse 



