THE STUD. 591 
The first chapter of the book is devoted to that vexata questio ,— 
soundness. 
Sound or unsound ? “ That’s the question !” 
“ To say the least, I will venture to assert that nine-tenths of 
the horses now in daily use are more or less unsound. I make no 
reservation as to the description of horse, his occupation, or what 
he may be worth. I scarcely ever had, indeed scarcely ever 
knew, a horse that had been used, and tried sufficiently to prove 
him a good one, that was in every particular unequivocally sound.” 
“ If my reader pays me the compliment of attaching any weight 
to what I write, he will probably say that I have put him quite out 
of heart with respect to buying or hoping to get a sound horse. 
This is precisely what I wish to do,—that is, so far as getting what 
he considers a sound one; but not at all as to getting what I con¬ 
sider quite sound enough , which is one that can and does do his 
work well and pleasantly , bears promise of continuing to do so, and 
has no outward (or inward?) signs of being (or doing?) otherwise .” 
A practical observation like this knocks down all philosophy. 
A man may argue this point is good or that point is bad ; and 
that such a horse has a spavin, or a curb, or a windgall; yet, if the 
horse perform as well with such alleged imperfections as we have 
reason to believe he would without them, and there arise nothing 
in them to afford us ground for reckoning on failure from them, the 
animal is, to all serviceable intents and purposes, a sound horse, and 
by any man who was a “ judge” would unhesitatingly be bought 
or sold as such. 
Passing over the four middle chapters of the work as, from their 
treating of the diseases, morbid imperfections, and habits and pro¬ 
pensities of the horse, of comparatively little interest to the 
veterinarian, at least in relation to their severally constituting 
unsoundness or objectionableness, we come to the sixth and last 
chapter, comprising the “ Points in the Make and Shape of Horses 
more or less desirable.” And here we derive a peculiar pleasure 
from finding our friend Harry has not treated with disdain or 
silence a “ point” to which we ourselves have, from very early 
years, been devoted with much respect. We mean the physiog¬ 
nomy or craniology of horses :— 
“ Irish horses, comparatively with English horses, generally 
have suspicious sinister-looking countenances, contracted and low¬ 
ering brows; and no man acquainted with animals of both coun- 
