422 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
these great observers of Nature held his form and qualifications ; 
nor is “ the noble horse” less admired and valued, in our country 
at least, at the present day. 
Although beauty and utility, as regards animal bodies, on most 
occasions are found to go hand-in-hand, the rule is far from want- 
ing exceptions. An individual part — the head, for example — may 
be small and faultlessly shaped, and yet the possessor of it, as now 
and then happens among human creatures, may not be highly 
gifted ; on the other hand, a horse having a plain, even an ugly 
head, may possess high qualifications. Phrenologists may possibly 
set these facts in a different light, though as yet the practical 
horseman has not derived that assistance from the science of phre- 
nology which more attention to it would probably afford him. 
With a view of arriving at a knowledge of that frame- work of ani- 
mal machinery from which we might reckon on deriving the 
greatest power and speed, it was natural enough that any person 
engaged in such an investigation should seek for a model of a horse, 
and for one of that description which was known and proved to 
perform in the most superior manner ; and having succeeded in find- 
ing such a model of perfection, it was but natural for him to set it 
up as a sort of prototype or standard, whereto others might be com- 
pared, and whereby their powers might be estimated. Considera- 
tions such as these appear to have prompted the first Professor of 
the Veterinary College, Sainbel, to set about and produce his work 
“ On the Geometrical Proportions of Eclipse.” Sainbel’s 
words in his “advertisement” are, “When first I employed myself in 
taking the proportions of Eclipse, I had no other object in view than 
to gratify my own curiosity with respect to the figure, extent, and 
direction of the parts which compose a race-horse, and to compare 
them with those of horses of different kinds, for the purpose of inform- 
ing myself of the mechanical causes which conspire to augment the 
velocity of the gallop.” — “ Since it is true, that the construction and 
direction of the bony and muscular parts within determine the out- 
ward figure of the body, a table of proportions, collected from the best 
race-horses, would be of great service ;” and also “ by means of this 
table, we should be enabled to establish the true conformation of the 
race-horse, and at any given time to discover whether the breed 
has improved or degenerated.” That Eclipse was a race-horse of 
the first distinction, both for speed and bottom, no one will dispute. 
He won more and higher renown on the turf than any horse either 
before or since his day ; and, therefore, Sainbel had a right to as- 
sume that his proportions were, as near as could be obtained from 
any one individual, such as a perfect race-horse should possess. 
By the “ proportions” of an animal body is meant the dimen- 
sions — the length, breadth, and thickness — of the various parts or 
