100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
general ossification of the human frame is incomplete before 
the age of 17, while that portion which corresponds to the 
quarter in the horse and supports the frame-work which has 
"been most appropriately termed 11 the strength of the loins” 
is not fitted for full exertion and the toils of manhood before 
the age of six or seven and twenty, notwithstanding the large 
amount of bone-forming food we consume from childhood. 
What period then should be allowed to the horse for building 
up his frame, seeing that his mouth is only full at five years of 
age ? Give him at least another year, up to six, to conso- 
lidate his bony structure and then start him at seven for the 
full duties of his career. The English knights of what was 
perhaps rather doubtfully styled “ the good old times” and 
whose casing emulated those of the modern iron-clads, never 
used a war horse till he was seven years old, and the hunt- 
ing squire-archy who now represent the same blood, when 
they adhere to the old plan and give their horses the same 
age before submitting them to the exhausting labors of the 
hunt, find that in many instances they remain sound and 
able for twelve consecutive seasons. Can the same be said 
for the unfortunate thorough-breds who enter at two years 
old or even three years. By far the greater number break 
down in training, and of those who run even successfully 
nine-tenths are at an early period consigned to cabs for 
town work and rarely reach six years, that is to say, they 
seldom live to that maturity which alone could have fitted 
them for the work expected and required from a full grown 
horse. According to Collins, out of some 1500 thorough- 
breds raised annually for the turf, about one in fifty con- 
tinues to run and about one in five hundred becomes distin- 
guished, a distinction which every true lover of the horse 
must consider as too dearly bought. The importance of hav- 
