PRINTED BY COMPTON AND RITCHIE, MIDDLE STREET, CLOTH FAIR. THE VETERINARIAN. VOL. XV, No. 169.] JANUARY 1842. [New Series, No. 1. LECTURES ON HORSES. By WILLIAM PERCIVALL, M.R.C.S., Veterinary Surgeon LECTURE I. FORM AND ACTION. "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" WHEN Richard in the heat of battle made use of this soulstirring exclamation, I take it he wanted a horse with form, and fire, and action, such as England alone, no less perhaps in those days than the present, could furnish him with. In what other part of the world could the Hotspur spirit of Richard have been suited? or where could he have met with an antagonist well enough mounted to have required such a steed to oppose him with, save in Britain? Exists there in any other country cavalry equal to our own? Can a horse of any foreign breed out-run the English racer? Acknowledgedly in possession of the finest and fleetest horses in the world, is a proof-and a pretty convincing one-that our knowledge concerning them, in a practical point of view, has attained a degree of eminence of which we may justly feel proud; and yet in veterinary and equestrian literature we appear to be behind France and Germany, and, perhaps, Italy too. We have several modern books on veterinary medicine-we have some on anatomy; but we lack one on what is commonly called " Exterior Conformation:" this want I propose to use my humble endeavours in the present lectures to supply. Animal bodies have been compared to works of art and to machines and engines of various descriptions. Such comparisons, at the same time that they manifest their boundless inferiority to their great prototype, have still had their use in serving to explain |