ON MAN AND ANIMALS. 
513 
The vertical position of our dorsal column enables us to resist with 
more ease than the horse, whose spine is horizontal, a burthen be- 
yond our strength. A well-made man, by dint of exercise, soon 
becomes able to carry thrice his rated weight, i. e. to lift and carry 
with ease seventy-five kilogrammes, while there are but few 
horses who could for any length of time support 250 kilogrammes. 
But in regard to the horse, his inability in this respect is the more 
to be considered, since he has not only to support his burthen, but 
at more or less speed to run along with it. 
So long as the animal is standing still his strength is employed 
solely to counteract the weight upon his back; from the moment, 
however, he is put in action the theory we have established falls 
to the ground ; for now his strength becomes divided between the 
resistance demanded by the weight upon him and the exertion 
required to give him the desired velocity in action. Now, as the 
expenditure of force is divided, and fatigue consequently aug- 
mented, it is required that the burthen should be diminished in the 
same ratio in which the speed becomes increased. 
Here, then, is a point meriting all our attention. If our officers 
and non-commissioned officers of cavalry were to study this chapter 
on the statistics and dynamics of the horse, if veterinary surgeons 
possessed sufficient authority in regiments, if they were consulted 
on such questions, we should soon discover that the present mode 
of setting the kit upon our cavalry horses is absurd and ruinous ; 
insomuch that to men conversant in such affairs it is no matter of 
surprise that the cavalry horses in France fail in such numbers : 
the fact being, that while such horses are compelled to move at a 
more rapid pace than others, they have to carry a disproportionate 
burthen, and this breaks them down. In France, the loss of the 
cavalry amounts yearly to one horse in eight, while in Prussia and 
Austria, and elsewhere, the loss is no higher than one in thirty. 
If the troop horse endures longer in Germany than in France, it is 
because the Germans, who have a practice of trying horses under 
different equipments with a view of ascertaining what amount of 
burthen they are able properly to perform under, scrupulously 
avoid over- weigh ting the animal. In France, on the contrary, the 
burthen of the war-horse is augmented according as the campaign 
grows long anddaborious. Have we not seen founder spreading 
in a short time over our Algerian cavalry I And in reflecting 
upon it, could it be expected otherwise with horses weak and ill- 
bred, little accustomed to privations, launched into deserts, shelter- 
less, and without resources I Under such circumstances as these, 
compelling horses to carry with them from eight to fifteen days' 
provisions, to say nothing about their equipment for battle, was to 
impel them to certain destruction. 
VOL. XX. 3 Y 
