54 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
ket possesses the points that must be adopted. These points are now, 
however, well established, and we have only to refer to them and notico 
the reasons on which they are founded. We proceed to name them be- 
fore we give their rationale. In general contour the body should be 
nearly a square. The crops should be wide. The line of the back should 
be straight ; tho line of the belly nearly so, swelling a little behind the ribs ; 
the flank low ; the ribs barrel-shaped ; the loins wide, and the rump long 
and wide ; the back should be wide, and the thigh should be long and 
wide ; the logs short and comparatively small, or at least not coarse ; 
tail light ; hair soft and fine. The color should be red or white, or a 
mixture of tho two, as roan or pied. 
As has already been said, the body should be nearly a square. Tho 
vital currents moving in short lines are more effective than when moving 
in those of great length. The blood moving from the heart along very 
extended channels, flows with much less force as it recedes from tho 
cause that set it in motion. The same is probably true of tho nervous 
currents. The great vitalizing organs are located, near the center of tho 
system — a provision of nature by which the vital currents arc shorter 
than under any other arrangement. Here is the heart sending out its 
great currents of arterialized blood in all directions, to supply and 
nourish all the members of the body. Sitting over it is that wonderful 
air machine, the lungs, receiving the entire venous currents — an atmos- 
pherio bath — by which they are so renovated and changed as to make 
the blood again fit for the heart’s use, to which it is returned by tho 
shortest possible route. These organs lie encased together, and never 
cease their operations night or day. But just here in this great center is 
another great vitalizer of fully equal importance — the stomach. Hero, 
the food is received and changed into chyle, which is at once thrown into 
the circulation, where its office of supplying the system is performed. 
Now, the nearer a bodj r is compacted around these great vitalizing 
systems the more effectual will be the supplies. Observation fully 
sustains these views. A very lengthy bullock never fattens so readily as 
a short one. The breeds of hogs with long bodies arc known not to 
fatten so readily ns those of short, square forms, as flic Siamese and 
Chinese. The same is true of sheep, and also of the horse. And even 
in man, we rarely find a corpulent man who will measure six feet. 
Obesity will generally be found under six feet. Health and vigor is 
equally confirmed by observation, as a result, of the square structure, 
longevity may also be claimed with the greatest propriety for the same 
proportions. A bullock with a square frame will be sure to possess all 
the qualities of health and vigor, and will feed and fatten as well or 
better than a long one- 
