ANECDOTES OE MORSES. 
585 
intelligence or flash with energetic fire ; or the docility and trae- 
tability of his disposition, we cannot fail to regard him as one of 
the noblest works of creation.” “ In the words of Stillingfleet, he 
Holds a rank 
Important in the plan of Him who framed 
This scale of beings ; holds a rank, which, lost. 
Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap 
Which nature’s self would rue."—p. 18. 
“ According to Linnaeus, the horse is a generous, proud, and 
strong animal, fit either for the draught, the course, or the road. 
He is delighted with woods; he takes care of his hinder parts ; 
defends himself from the flies with his tail; scratches his fellow; 
defends his young; calls by neighing; sleeps after night-fall; 
fights by kicking, and also by biting; rolls on the ground w hen 
he sw r eats; eats the grass closer than the ox; wants a gall¬ 
bladder ; never vomits; the foal is produced with the feet 
stretched out; he is injured by being struck on the ear or upon 
the stifle, by being caught by the nose in barnacles, by having 
his teeth rubbed with tallow, and by various herbs.”—p. 148. 
In speaking of the ancient and modern history of the horse, 
our author hazards an opinion to us perfectly new. Our readers 
may profit by it quantum valeat: “ Arabia being sufficiently 
above the level of the sea, and having a surface composed of 
sand, mixed w ith a portion of vegetable mould (a circumstance 
favourable to pasture ground), and the plains of Persia situated 
still higher above the ocean, and consisting of a deposit of allu¬ 
vial soil resting on granite, are naturally dry, and, by means of 
their heat, attract moisture from the horse. On the other hand, 
the aromatic vegetation, which is there strong and succulent, 
drives from him those humours, the exudation of which is fa¬ 
voured by the imperceptible but continual perspiration incidental 
to a warm climate. The consequence is, that the horses of these 
and other countries, with similar pasturage, are completely free 
from the strangles and other glandular diseases, which are fre¬ 
quent and fatal to those of Europe.”—p. 39. 
In “ Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Horse,” we 
however have no right to expect the display of very accurate 
knowledge of physiology or pathology: if the sketches are drawn 
from life, and the anecdotes are amusing and authentic, and the 
sources whence they are derived acknowledged, we have nothing 
of w hich to complain. We have said our say of the last of these, 
and not more severely than such systematic and artful piracy 
demanded. We will now’ give a brief outline of the contents of 
the work. 
Captain Brow n first gives a sketch of the early history of the 
