Horse

of all horses used to be reckoned from the first of May, but some are foaled even as early as Janu ary, and being actually four months over the two years, if they have been well nursed and fed, and are strong and large, they may, with the inex perienced, have an additional year put upon them. The central nippers are punched or drawn out, and the others appear three or four months earlier than they otherwise would. In the natural process they would only rise by long pressing upon the first teeth, and causing their absorption. But opposition from the first set being removed, it is easy to imagine that their progress will be more rapid. Three or four months will be gained in the appearance of these teeth, and these three or four months will enable the breeder to term him a late colt of the preced ing year. To him, however, who is accustomed to horses, the general form of the animal, the little development of the forehead, the continuance of the mark on the next pair of nippers, its more evi dent existence in the corner ones, some enlarge ment or irregularity about the gums from the violence used in forcing out the teeth, the small growth of the first and fifth grinders, and the non-appearance of the sixth grinder, which, if it be not through the gum at three years old is swelling under it, and preparing to get through —any or all of these circumstances, carefully attended to, will be a sufficient security against deception. A horse at three years old ought to have the central permanent nippers growing, the other two ,pairs wasting, six grinders in each jaw, above and below, the first and fifth level, the others and the sixth protruding. The sharp edge of new incisors, although it could not well be expressed in the cut, will be very evident when compared with the old teeth. As the per manent nippers wear and continue to grow, a narrow portion of the cone-shaped tooth is exposed by the attrition, and they look as if they had been compressed, but it is not so. Not only will the mark be wearing out, but the crowns of the teeth will be sensibly smaller. At three years and a half, or between that and four, the next pair of nippers will be changed, and the mouth at that time can not be mistaken. The central nippers will have attained nearly their full growth. A vacuity will be left where the second stood, or they will begin to peep above the gum, and the corner ones will be iiminished in breadth, worn down, and the mark becoming small and faint. At this period, likewise, the second pair of grinders will be shed. Previously to this may be the attempt of the dealer to give his three-year-old an additional year, but the fraud will be detected by an examination similar to that which has been already described. At four years, the central nippers will he fully developed; the sharp edge somewhat worn off, and the mark shorter, wider, fainter. The next pair will be up, but they will be small, with the mark deep and extending quite across them, as in Fig. 7. The corner nippers will be -larger than the inside ones, yet smaller than they were, and flat, and the mark nearly effaced. The sixth grinders will have risen to a level with the others, and the tushes will begin to appear. Now, more than at any other time, will the dealer be anxious to put an additional year on the animal, for the difference between s four-year old colt and a five-year-old horse, in strength; utility and value, is very great; but the want of wear in the other nippers, the small size of the corner ones, the little growth of the tush, the smallness of the second grinder, the low fore hand, the legginess of the colt, and the thickness and little depth of the mouth, will, to the man of common experience among horses, at once detect the cheat. The tushes are four in number, two in each jaw, situated between the nippers and the grinders, much nearer to the former than to the latter, and nearer in the lower jaw than the upper, but this distance increases in both jaws with the age. In shape, the tush some what resembles a cone; it protrudes from the gum about an inch, and.is sharp-pointed and curved. The appearance of this tush in the horse may vary from four years to four years and six months. It can only be accelerated a few weeks by cutting the gum over it. At four years and a half, or between that and five, the last important change takes place in the mouth of the horse. The corner nippers are shed, and the permanent ones begin to appear. The cen tral nippers are considerably worn, and the next pair are commencing to show marks of usage. The tush has now protruded, and is generally a full half inch in height; externally, it has a rounded prominence, with a groove on either side; and it is evidently hollowed within, The reader scarcely needs to be told that after the rising of the corner nipper, the animal changes its name. The colt becomes a horse, the filly a mare. At five years, the horse's mouth is almost perfect—Fig. 8. The corner nippers are quite up, with",the long deep mark irregular in the inside, and the other nippers bearing evident tokens of increased wearing. The tush is much grown; the grooves have almost or quite disap peared; and the outer surface is regularly con vex. It is still as concave within, and with the edge nearly as sharp, as it was six months before. The sixth molar is quite up, and the third molar is wanting. This last circumstance, if the general appearance of the animal, and particularly his forehand, and the wearing of the center nippers, and the growth and shapes of the tushes be likewise carefully attended to, will prevent deception, if a late four-year-old is attempted to be substituted for a five-year-old. The nippers may be brought up a few months before their time, and the tushes a few weeks, but the grinder is with difficulty displaced.. The three last grinders and the tushes are never shed. At six years—see Fig. 9-the mark on the central nippers is worn out. There will still be a differ ence of color in the center of the tooth. The cement filling up the hole, made by the dipping of the enamel, will present a browner hue than the other part of the tooth, and it will be evi dently surrounded by an edge of enamel, and there will remain even a little depression in the center, and also a depression round the case of enamel; but the deep hole in the center of the teeth, with the blackened surface which it pre scuts, and the elevated edge of enamel, will have disappeared. Persons not much accus tomed to horses have been puzzled here. They expected to find a plain surface of uniform color, and knew not what conclusion to draw when there was both discoloration and irregu In the next incisors the mark is shorter, broader, and fainter, and in the corner teeth the edges of the enamel are more regular, and the surface is evidently worn. The tush has attained its full growth, being nearly or quite an inch long, convex outward, concave within, tending to a point, and the extremity somewhat curved. . The third grinder is fairly up, and all the grinders are level. The horse may now be said to have a perfect mouth. All the teeth are produced, fully grown, and have hitherto sus tained no material injury. During these impor tant changes of the teeth, the animal has suf fered less than could have been supposed possi ble. At seven years—see Fig. 10—the mark, in the way in which we have described it, is worn out in the four central nippers, and fast wearing away in the corner teeth; the tush also is begin ning to be altered. It will be found that it is rounded at the point, rounded at the edges, still round without, and beginning to get round inside. At eight years old, the tush is rounder in every way; the mark is gone from all the bottom nippers, and it may almost be said to be out of the mouth. There is nothing remaining in the bottom nippers that can afterward clearly show the age of the horse, or to justify the most experienced examiner in giving a positive opinion. Dishonest dealers have been said to resort to a method of prolonging the mark in the lower flippers. It is called Bishoping, from the name of the scoundrel who invented it. The horse of eight or nine years old—for his mouth, see Fig. 11—is thrown, and with an engraver's tool a hole is dug in. the now almost plain surface of the corner teeth, in shape resembling the mark yet left in those of a seven-year-old horse. The hole is then burned with a heated iron, and a permanent black stain is left. The next pair of nippers are sometimes slightly touched. An ignorant man would be very easily deceived by this trick; but the irregular appearance of the cavity, the diffusion of the black stain around the tushes, the sharpened edges and concave inner surface of which can never be given again, the marks on the upper nippers, together with the general conformation of the horse, can never deceive the careful examiner. Horsemen, after the animal is eight years old, are accustomed to look to the nippers in the upper jaw, and some conclusion has been drawn from the appearances which they present. It cannot be doubted that the mark remains in them for some years after it has been obliterated in the nippers of the lower jaw. There are various opinions as to the intervals between the disappearance of the marks from the different cutting teeth of the upper jaw. Some have averaged it at two years, some at one. Dr. Youatt was inclined to adopt the latter opinion, and then the age will be thus determined. At nine years the mark will be worn from the middle nippers, from the next pair at ten, and from all the upper nippers at eleven. During these periods the tush is like wise undergoing a manifest change. It is blun ter, shorter and rounder. III what degree this takes place in the different periods, long and favorable opportunities can alone enable the horseman to decide. The alteration in the form of the tushes is frequently uncertain. It will sometimes be blunt at eight, and at others remain pointed at eighteen. After eleven, and until the horse is very old, the age may be guessed at with some degree of confidence, from the shape of the upper surface, or extremity of the nippers. At eight they are all oval, the length of the oval running across from tooth to tooth; but as the horse gets older, the teeth diminish in size—and this commencing in their width and not in their thickness. They become a little apart from become less prominent, and their regular diminu tion will designate increasing age. At eleven or twelve, the lower nippers change' their origins; upright direction, and project forward horizon tally, and become of a yellow color. The general indications of old age, independent of the*teeth, are the deepening of the hollows over the gray hairs, and particularly over the eyes, and about the muzzle; thinness and hanging down of the lips; sharpness of the withers, sinking of the back, lengthening of the quarters; and the disap pearance of windgalls, spavins, and tumors every kind. Horses, kindly and not prematurely used, sometimes live to between thirty-five and forty-five years of age; and Mr. Percival gives an account of a barge horse that died in his sixty second year. As indicating what the best horses of the ancients were like, also as showing how near they approached to what would now-a-days be each other, and their surfaces become round instead of oval. At nine, the center nippers are evidently so; at ten, the others begin to have the oval shortened. At eleven, the second pair of nippers are quite rounded, and at thirteen, the corner ones have also that appearance. At fourteen, the faces of the central nippers become somewhat triangular. At seventeen, they are all so. At nineteen, the angles begin to wear off, and the central teeth are again oval, but in a reversed direction; viz., from outward, inward, and at twenty-one they all wear this form. It would of course bq folly to expect any thing like a cer tainty in an opinion of the exact age of an old horse, as drawn from the above indications. Stabled horses have the marks sooner worn out than those that are at grass, and crib-biters still sooner. At nine or ten, the bars of the mouth called a well muscled horse of all work, or a good roadster, the description of Xenophon in his instructions are as correct to-day as when written over 2,200 years ago, as follows : First, be says, we will write, how one may be the least deceived in the purchase of horses. It is evident, then, that of the unbroken colt one must judge by the bodily construction; since, if he has never been backed, he will afford no very clear evidences of his spirit. Of his body, then, we say that it is necessary first to examine the feet; for, as in a house it mat ters not how fine may be the superstructure, if there be not sufficient foundations, so in a war horse there is no utility, no, not if he have all other points perfect, but be badly footed. But in examining the feet, it is befitting first to look to the horny portion of the hoofs, for those horses which have the horn thick, are far superior in their feet to those which have it thin. Nor will it be well if one fail, next, to observe whether the hoofs be upright, both before and behind, or low and flat to the ground; for high hoofs keep the frog at a distance from the earth, while the flat tread with equal pressure on the soft and hard parts of the foot, as is the case with bandy-legged men. And Simon justly observes, that well-footed horses can be known by the sound of their tramp, for the hollow hoof rings like a cymbal, when it strikes the solid earth. But having begun from below, let us ascend to the other parts of the body. It is needful, then, that the parts above the hoof and below the fetlocks (pasterns) be not too erect, like those of the goat; for legs of this kind, being stiff and inflexible, are apt to jar the rider, and are more liable to inflammation. The bones must not, however, be too low and springy, for in that case the fetlocks are liable to be abraded and wounded, if the horse he galloped over clods or stones. The bones of the shanks (cannon bones) should be thick, for these are the columns which support the body ; but they should not have the veins and flesh thick, likewise. For, if they have, when the horse shall be galloped in difficult ground, they will necessarily be filled with blood, and will become varicose, so that the shanks will be thickened, and the skin be dis tended and relaxed from the bone; and, when this is the case, it often follows, that the back sinew gives way and renders the horse lame. But if the horse, when in action, bend his knees flexi bly at a walk, you mayjudge that he will have his legs flexible when in full career; for all horses as they increase in years, increase in the flexi bility of the knee. And flexible goers are esteemed highly, and with justice; for such horses are much less liable to blunder or to stumble than those which have rigid, unbending joints. But if the arms, below the shoulder blades, be thick and muscular, they appear stronger and hand somer, as is the case also with a man. The breast also should be broad, as well for beauty as for strength, and because it causes a handsomer action of the forelegs, which do not then interfere, but are carried wide apart. Again, the neck ought not to be set on, like that of a boar, horizontally from the chest; but, like that of a game-cock, should be upright toward the crest, and slack toward the flexure; and the head being long, should have a small and narrow jawbone, so that the neck shall be in front of the rider, and that the eye shall look down at what is before the feet. A horse thus made will not be likely to run violently away, even if he be very high-spirited, for horses do not attempt to run away by bring ing in, but by thrusting out, their heads and necks. It is also very necessary to observe, whether the mouth be fine or hard on both sides, or on one or the other. For horses that have not both jaws equally sensitive, are likely to be hard-mouthed on one side or the other. And it is better that a horse should have prominent than hollow eyes, for such a one will see to a greater distance. And widely opened nostrils are far better for respiration than narrow, and they give the horse a fiercer aspect; for when one stallion is enraged against another, or if he be come angry while being ridden, he expands his nostrils to their full width. And the loftier the

crest, and the smaller the ears, the more horse like and handsome is the head rendered; while lofty withers give the rider a surer seat, and pro duce a firmer adhesion between the body and shoulders. A double loin is also softer to sit upon and pleasanter to look upon, than if it be single ; and a deep side, rounded toward the belly, renders the horse easier to sit, and stronger, and more easy to be kept in condition; and the shorter and broader the loin, the more easily will the horse raise his fore-quarters, and collect his hind-quarters under him, in going. These points, moreover, cause the belly to appear the smaller; i which, if it be large, at once injures the appear ance of the animal and renders him weaker, and 'less manageable. The quarters should be broad and fleshy, in order to correspond with the sides and chest, and, should they be entirely firm and solid, they would be lighter in the gallop, and the horse would be the speedier. But if he should have his buttocks separated under the tail by a broad line, he will bring his hind legs under him, with 'a wider space between them; and so doing he will have a prouder and stronger gait and action, and will, in all respects, be the better on them. A proof of which is to be had in men, who, when they desire to raise any thing from the ground, attempt it by straddling their legs, not by bringing them close together. Stallions should not have the testes large, and this ought not to be overlooked in foals. To conclude, in regard to the lower joints, of the shanks, namely, and the fetlocks and the hoofs, behind, I have the same remarks to make, and no others, than those which I have made above. Every horse man should thoroughly understand the points of a horse, and the terms by which these are desig nated. The above eloquent description of the horse has not been improved on since Xeno phon's time. A study of the outline, and ex planatory terms on page '498, will make the reader conversant with all that is valuable in the make-up of the horse, as seen in the exterior. A horse attains his greatest strength and vigor at nine or ten years of age, and continues in full vigor up to the age of fifteen, if he has been carefully used. Nine-tenths of the horses from being worked too young and from other abuse are often unserviceable before they attain the age of full vigor. At seven or eight years a horse is mature but has not arrived at his full vigor and strength. Their natural life is thirty years. but occasionally an individual lives to forty-five. If well cared for they will perform full work between the ages of eight and twenty years. An English writer, some twenty years ago, enumerates five horses in his stables whose ages respectfully were as follows: thirteen, twenty-one, twenty-six, twenty-nine and forty years. That they had been kept thus intact by good care, honest driving, and particular care in shoeing and attention to their feet. One of the best teams we ever owned were seventeen years old when bought, as lively as cats, and quite sound. They had been raised in the East by the farmer who drove them through from thence to Illinois before an emigrant wagon. The horse is the most perfect embodiment of strength and speed to be found in the animal kingdom. This is shown by his physiological development throughout. These have all been minutely described in many veterinary works, and in various encyclopaedias. Hence a few extracts will here suffice. The skull is remarkable for the great width between the orbits, its flatness, the length of the face compared with the era nium, and the vertical depth of the lower jaw; the intermaxillaries project considerably beyond the nasal bones, the latter overhanging the cavity of the nostrils; the temporal arch is short, straight, and situated in the posterior third of the skull. The cervical vertebrae are of large size, and the posterior are oblong with short processes, so as to secure great freedom of motion in the neck; the dorsals are eighteen, with short transverse processes, and very long spines anteriorly to afford origins for the ligaments which support the head; the lumbar are six (but five in the ass), broad and firmly joined together, with remarkably developed processes, especially the transverse; the sacrum is a single bone, made up of five consolidated vertebras, in a continuous line with the rest of the spine, and united to the last lumbar by the very large articulating oblique processes of the latter, securing a springiness in this region in leaping and galloping; the caudals vary from seventeen there are no movements of proration and supina tion, but only of hinge-like flexion and extension. The muscular system of the horse is very differ ent from that of man, and has been described minutely in treatises on veterinary medicine. The panniculus carnosus, of which the platysma myoides of man is a rudiment, is greatly devel oped, and very movable, affording support and protection to various organs. The spinal muscles are of great extent and strength, especially in the neck and tail, which admit of much precision and grace of motion; the extensors of the fore arm, the gluteus medius (the kicking muscle), and the muscles of the loins, extremities, and neck are generally very powerful; the muscles of the face, particularly those of the lips and nostrils, are largely developed, giving the well known variety of facial expression in this animal. The explanatory terms given below of points of the horse or the names of the several parts, will form an important study. They are to twenty-one having the form of vertebrae only in the upper ones. The chest is capacious, com pressed laterally in front, and prolonged in advance of the first rib so as to somewhat resem ble the thorax of a bird; in the middle and posterior portions it is rounded, and extends far back toward the pelvis; the ribs are eighteen pairs, the anterior broad and massive (eight being true), and the posterior more slender. The clavicle is absent, and the corticoid process very rudimentary; shoulder blades, triangular, with prominent spine, closely approximated to the chest, transmitting the weight of this half of the body perpendicularly to the ground; the arm bone is short and strong; the forearm consists almost entirely of the greatly developed radius, the ulna being a mere appendage consolidated in the adult animal to its posterior surface, though its olecranon process is of large size, affording a powerful purchase to the extensor muscles; generally recognized by horsemen everywhere, and should be correctly kept in mind by the reader, in that he may get a correct idea of the several parts.

The skeleton of the horse is the frame work upon which is built the motive power of the animal.

A. study of the anatomy, and the names of the several parts, is important. The cut and tions below will give these correctly and clearly: A, the head.

a, the posterior maxillary, or under jaw. j the superior maxillary, or upper jaw; near the latter is a foramen, through which pass the nerves and blood vessels, which chiefly supply the lower part of the face.

c, the orbit, or cavity containing the eye.

d, the nasal bones, or bones of the 110b0.

e, the suture dividing the parietal bones below from the occipital bones above.

r, the interior maxillary bone, containing the upper incisor teeth.

B. the seven cervical vertebrae, Or bones of the neck.

, the eighteen dorsal vertebrte, or bones of the back. .0 , the six lumbar vertehrze, or bones of the loin.

E, the five sacral vertebra, or bones of the haunch.

the caudal vertebra, or bones of the tail, generally about fifteen in number.

G the scapula, or shoulder blade.

the sternum, or chest.

I, the costa, or ribs, seven or eight, articulated with the sternum, and called the true ribs, and ten or eleven united together by cartilage, called the false ribs.

J, the humerus, or bone of the arm.

is simple and capacious; the intestinal canal is long, but short in comparison with that of the ruminants; but the colon is of enormous capac ity, as also is the cmcum, apparently occupying the greater portion of the abdominal cavity; the small intestine is about fifty-six feet long, with a circumference of from two and a, half to six inches; the ctecum is two and a half feet long, and two feet in circumference at the widest part; the colon and rectum are twenty-one feet long, the former averaging two feet in circumference; the whole canal, therefore, is about eighty feet long. The liver weighs between four and five pounds, having no gall bladder, and the spleen twelve ounces; the urinary bladder is small in comparison with the size of the animal, its cir cumference when moderately distended being about one and a half feet; the mammary nipples are two, ing,uinal, and have at the base a hollow cavity which permits the accumulation of a con siderable quantity of milk, which is often removed by man as an article of diet, especially for inva lids. The hoof of the horse presents an admira r, the radius or bone of the, forearm.

A the ulna, or elbow. The point of the elbow is called the olecranon.

, the carpus, or knee, consisting of seven bones.

jir, the metacarpal bones. The large metacarpal, or cannon and shank in front, and the smaller metacarpal, or splent bones, behind.

g, the fore-pastern and foot, consisang of the os sulfrag inis, or the upper and larger pastern bone, with the sesamoid bones hehind, articulating with the cannon and greater pastern; the os coronee, or less pastern, the os pedis, or coffin bone, the os naviculare, ornavicnlar or shuttle bone, not seen, and articulating with the smaller pastern and coffin hones.

it, the corresponding bones of the hind feet.

0, the haunch, consisting of three portions; the ilium, the ischium, and the pubis.

the femur, or thigh.

the stifle joint, with the patella.

B, the tibia, or proper leg-bone; behind is a small bone called the fibula.

8, the tarsus, or hock, composed of six bones. The inent part is the os cakes, or point of the hock.

T, the metatarsals of the hind leg.

The salivary glands, especially the parotid, are remarkably developed; the stomach of the horse ble adaptation to secure solidity and elasticity in an instrument of progression; the whole exterior horny covering, to which the shoe is attached, composed of modified epidermic structure, is a hollow cone truncated above, into which the coffin bone is received; highest in front, it grad ually diminishes backward, where it is suddenly turned inward, becoming mixed with the sole, supporting the under parts of the foot, and pro tecting the sole and the frog from too rough pressure against the ground; this internal wall, called the bars of the foot, by its sloping direc tion distributes the weight of the body toward the sides of the hoof, with whose numerous per pendicular horny laminae interdigitate similar processes from the vascular surface of the coffin bone. In the triangular space in the center of the foot, is an elastic horny mass called the frog, its base connecting the posterior curves of the hoof, the sides united with the bar, and the point extending about to the center of the sole • on the sides are deep channels, to allow of its expansion and render the foot elastic; its actual thickness in horn is not so great as farriers seem to think, from the freedom with which they use the paring knife; in a well formed foot, the base of the frog ought to occupy a sixth part of the circumference of the circle of the hoof; in the center of the frog is a horny conical cavity of considerable depth, which protects the partially cleft foot from further rupture, adds to the elasticity, secures a firmer hold on loose soils, and passing above into the substance of the sen sitive frog, serves to unite•firmly the two halves of the foot, which are completely divided in ruminants; this horny cone has been called the frogstay or bolt. The sensitive frog falls into the inverted arch of the horny frog, which are thus held mutually in place and preserved from external shock. The sole is an irregular plate of horn, closing up the lower opening of the foot, of an arched form, abutting everywhere against the sides of the wall, another contrivance for securing elasticity. The foot of the horse, there fore, though solid in front, is partially cleft behind, so that the terms solidungula and soli poda can not strictly be applied to it; indeed a solid, continuous, unyielding circle of horn would be very painful if not entirely useless as an instru ment of active progression. Immediately under the hoof are extensive cartilages, attached to the last two bones, protecting the upper part of the structure and adding greatly to the elasticity of the foot, and permitting the movements of the coffin bone within the hoof. Under the hoof is also a very sensitive and vascular layer, from which the hoof originates, analogous to the soft core of hollow horns and the matrix of nails. The eyes of the horse are large, and the sight excel lent, and capable of distinguishing objects by night; the ears are large and very movable, and the sense of hearing very acute, as in other timid and comparatively defenseless animals; the sense of smell is also acute, as is seen in their selection of food and in the recbgnition of their masters; the cutaneous sense is very fine, and the tactile powers of their movable lips exquisite. Then movements of the horse are many; besides the walk, trot, gallop, and amble, pace, or rack, some horses gallop with the fore legs and trot with the hind, others move each leg separately in succes sion, and others execute many artificial move ments, the result of education. The horse is quick to perceive and has an excellent memory, two qualities which render his training easy and extensive; he is capable of deep and lasting attachment. The neigh or voice of the horse is well known, the females exercising it less fre quently than the males. In compact form, elegance of proportions, and grace of movement, combining speed and strength, it is surpassed by no animal; sculptors and painters have made the horse the subject of their chisels and pencils, and poets, sacred and secular, have sung its praises from time immemorial. Almost every part of the horse, after death, is useful to man ; his skin is valuable for gloves, his hair for making cloth, his bones for buttons and for grinding into fertilizers, his flesh as food for dogs, his hoofs for making glue, and his intes tines for the manufacture of delicate membranous tissues; so that the horse, said in ancient fable to have been created by Neptune as the animal most useful to man, can safely lay claim to being of the greatest value to the human race. It is an error to suppose there were wild horses found in America at the time of its discovery. The so-called wild horses of America are un doubtedly of Spanish origin escaped from the earlier Spanish adventurers, those of North America from the chargers abandoned by De Soto, and those of South America liberated at the abandonment of Buenos Ayres. This of course is mere conjecture, as to the exact source from whence they sprang. Certain it is, that no trace of horses were discovered by the first navigators visiting our shores. The same is true of the islands of the Pacific, and Australia, nevertheless, fossil remains of the equine race have been found, but they became extinct long before the historic period. Those which escaped from the Spaniards, however, soon multiplied, and congregated into vast droves in the tropical and semi-tropical regions north and south of the equator, where they live in a semi-wild, and even fully wild state.

./E'sculus hippocasta num. This tree is remarkable for the beauty of its figure, flowers, and early foliage. The wood is soft and of little value. The nuts contain much nutritious matter, which is 'combined with a disagreeable bitter. The Buckeye is of this genus, or, rather, of the sub-genus Pavia.