Recent Agricultural Publications. 
409 
of veterinary schools. The object of studying the exterior of the 
horse is defined to be to enable us to determine by a rapid examina- 
tion of the form of a horse his relative commercial value in the 
service in Avhich he is to be employed. It is argued that a rational 
course of study will facilitate the acquirement of this faculty, not- 
withstanding the fact that high perfection in this respect may be 
acquired by certain persons who are quite ignorant of the sciences 
which are applied to the exterior. 
“ The officers of our remounts, of our studs, even simple horse dealers [we 
should hardly venture to describe them as ‘ simple,’ in EnglandH, astonish 
us sometimes by the rapidity with which they see in a horse the wealc point, 
the defect, and the blemish ; they have, moreover, that veritable tact of 
knowing how to adapt themselves in their purchases to the exigencies, 
modes, and fancies of the times. However, the time which it has taken 
them to obtain the result must be considered. Theoretical ideas have pre- 
cisely the effect of shortening this time ; they are, for beginners, aids which 
experience will allow them to dispense with, but without which they could 
not rise above this empirical knowledge, appanage of the ignorant and of 
the coxcomb, who accepts under the same title the true and the false, and 
who is incapable of distinguishing otherwise than by the routine with which 
he proceeds.” 
In conformity with the views thus enunciated the authors com- 
mence with a brief but necessary section dealing with animal 
mechanics, wherein are discussed such elementary ideas as those 
concerning the centre of gravity, the lever and muscular mechanism, 
and the inclined plane. The second section is occupied with a study 
of the regions, as a preliminary to which the whole of the external 
surface of the horse is, as it were, mapped out into parts, each 
with its appropriate name. The several regions comprised in 
the head, the body, and the limbs are tlien considered one by 
one with reference to certain pre-arranged definitions of beauties, 
defects, blemishes, vices, and faults. A difficulty arises from the 
circumstance that the words blemish, vice, and fault are often used 
synonymously when applied to the horse. Nevertheless, by the 
term blemish is designated a cause of depreciation, superficial and 
apparent. Vice and fault seem rather to convey the idea of some- 
thing concealed. 
“ However it may be, we add that most usually the name blemish is given 
to cicatrices, tumours resulting from accident, operations which the animal 
has undergone, or different diseases which have left apparent lesions. Let 
us give some examples. A horse one of whose articulations has been 
cauterised is blemished. A horse which presents enlargements around the 
hock is blemished. The same thing follows when blisters are applied to the 
walls of the thorax, and the hairs are not replaced at the place of applica- 
tion. A horse which after having been bled has contracted an inflammation 
of the iugular vein, with a consecutive obliteration of the latter, is a ble- 
mished horse.” 
Vice may in some cases result from the bad character of the 
animal, or from his imperfect education. A horse which bites, 
strikes, rears, and pulls backward, without being induced to do so, 
