Chapter I (2)

When contemplating the uses for which the quadruped was created, we perceive the necessity of that huge mass of muscular fiber with which the back is cushioned. We also recognize the beauty of intention which those numerous supports, called ribs, embody and declare. These props, eighteen on either side, must greatly strengthen the main structure, although each is of a loose texture, and every one is more or less pliable. The innate property of elasticity belonging to the horse’s ribs seems to have been long known to country urchins, who, out of these bones, have been accustomed to form bows whence to propel juvenile arrows. Nature, however, seems not to have been satisfied with this provision, for the inferior portion of the ribs consists of cartilage, which anatomists speak of as the most elastic substance in the body; this yielding termination rests on the sternum or breast-bone, a structure more than three parts of which are composed of the last-named material.

Showing the manner in which the ribs spring from the spine to unite upon the bone of the breast.]

The manner in which the fore limb is united to the trunk likewise offers matter for the reader’s admiration. Considering that the horse is a beast of burden, man, were he designing a creature fitted for such uses, would assuredly have sought to gain strength by the insertion of bone. Bone, however, would have interfered with that agility which, no less than strength, is an attribute of the horse’s body. The presence even of a clavicle joining the shoulder to the thorax would have exposed a jumping quadruped to repeated fractures. Nature, therefore, bound the parts together by interlacing fibers. And to afford an idea of the marvelous care bestowed on this arrangement, the following diagram is submitted to the contemplation of the reader.

Three muscles have already been removed, viz., the panniculus
carnosus, the levator humeri, and the latissimus dorsi.

1. The trapezius.
2. The seratus magnus.
3. The subscapulo hyoideus.
4. The rhomboideus.
5. The pectoralis anticus.
6. The anterior portion of the pectoralis magnus.
7. The pectoralis parvus.
8. The pectoralis transversus.
]

The rider, therefore, when mounted on a horse, is not only seated upon fleshy and ligamentous fiber, and upheld by pliable bone based upon elastic cartilage, but as the thorax is supported by the anterior extremity, he actually swings upon the strongest and most yielding substance known throughout animated nature. Could mortal ingenuity, by the exercise of any force or duration of thought, have perfected so exquisite a work? But the mind is abased and humbled before the proofs of Superior Wisdom, when we find that all hitherto made known is but a part of the lavish provision bestowed upon the perfection of God’s most beautiful gift to man.

The bones within the fore limb are not self-sustaining. Remove their coverings, and they will not retain their several places, but will fall in a heap upon the earth. The fact proves that the osseous framework, although it confers solidity upon the body, is nevertheless upheld by the structures with which it is enveloped. The bony column, however, when united and bound together, exhibits an intention of bestowing elasticity quite as much as of conferring strength. In the first place, the solid column is crowned by a broad but thin plate of cartilage, the yielding property of which has already been dilated upon; so that the trunk not only swings upon living fiber, but the primary weight is endured by what anatomists designate “the most elastic substance in the body,” of a shape and form which develops to the uttermost its bending property.

The arrangement of the shoulder-blade and the bone on which it rests being angular, evidently contemplates a yielding to any force coming from above. The two next bones cannot be viewed as meant solely for strength; though the several parts of the knee and shank are slightly columnar in their order, nevertheless the pastern bones again display an intent to yield rather than a design at gaining decided resistance. Yet, even there remains further food for contemplation when viewing these dry bones of a quadruped. The shock, of which the rider complains when doomed to cross the trunk of some poor animal whose body has been disorganized by abuse, is occasioned by the bones having been, through disease, thrown from their natural positions.

Engineers well know that sand will oppose the force of a cannon ball, the power being rapidly exhausted which has to travel through numerous separated particles. Each grain of sand, therefore, being distinct, a bag of that substance offers a good preventive to the concussion produced by the explosive force of gunpowder. But the reader, when endeavoring to ascertain the provisions instituted by Benevolence to save the equestrian from concussion, can at once perceive the purpose for which the osseous support of the limb was formed of several pieces, as well as appreciate the beauty and grace of motion which is thereby assured.

Looking at the illustration, we observe that certain of the component solids of the limbs are altogether out of the perpendicular, and consequently must receive other support than is derived from the bone immediately below them. Indeed, no portion of the structure is decidedly columnar in its arrangement. Either the parts are crooked, or they lean in a direction from the plummet line. The angularity of the two topmost pieces can, however, not possibly escape notice; neither can the slanting position of the pastern bones fail to attract attention. Noting these peculiarities, the reader recognizes that the bones of the fore extremity cannot be self-sustaining, but they must be upheld or retained in their relative situations by the structures which surround them in the living subject.

The scapula and humerus, or the two topmost bones, are rendered firm by the joint action of the powerful extensor and flexor muscles appertaining to the shoulder. The pastern bones transfer their weight to the strong tendon which passes immediately under their lower surfaces. The other bones are held in their situations by the energetic contractility of the muscles which embrace them. Hence it is obvious the rider, when seated on the back of a horse, is not upheld by any osseous resistance. His burden reposes upon living fiber. The bone limits the sphere of contractility, and thus gives firmness to the limbs; but it endures no portion of the weight. So exquisitely has nature adapted her creature to its uses, that in the horse man is provided with a means of conveyance remarkable for fleetness, but more wonderful for the elastic and buoyant seat which an admirable body affords to an ungrateful master.

THE PRINCIPAL FLEXOR TENDONS OF THE FORELEG.

1. The perforans.
2. The perforatus.
3, 4. Accessory muscles.
5, 6. Restraining ligaments.
7. The pedal cartilage divided.
8. The navicular bone.
]

Had weight been cast upon bone, the shock communicated by placing the foot upon the ground would have been so powerful as must have made the saddle a seat of torture. This is no speculative conjecture, but it is a deduction drawn from positive fact. Hard work causes the pastern bones to quit the slant, which is their natural position, and to assume a more upright direction. They very rarely become actually perpendicular; but as they verge toward that attitude, so as partially to transfer their weight from the tendon to one another, the jar communicated to the rider becomes most distressing. The tendons of the foreleg are, therefore, of all importance; the utility of these structures cannot be better illustrated than by appealing to the terrible effects which ensue upon injury to these organs.

However, that the reader may fully appreciate the simplicity and the seeming complexity developed in the various arrangements exposed upon dissection, the next illustration is inserted, against which numerous lines are fixed. Those marks indicate the points where a substance, like to white of egg, is interposed between the extremities of the bones. Each separate bone thus not only rests upon a liquid, but the ends of these formations are likewise tipped with cartilage, thus doubly securing the ease of progression. Nor have the perfection of these various arrangements received full justice, for concussion of the foot has not only to travel through different bones tipped by cartilage and separated by the interposition of a fluid, but it also has to progress through the various structures of which the limb itself is composed, and to travel in different directions.

So elaborate an arrangement, or one better fitted to answer its intention, no human study could invent. Man has for ages labored to disarrange the parts thus admirably adjusted; when so employed, he has only followed the example of the savage who destroys the product he is incapable of understanding. No injury, no wrong, no cruelty can be conceived which barbarity has not inflicted on the most generous of man’s many willing slaves. While this has been going forward, nations, at a vast outlay, have retained expensive establishments to entreat the mercies of a Superior to be lavished upon themselves, and at the moment these people were boasting aloud of their refined feelings or of their exalted civilization, they have been incapable of sympathizing with the agony which was imprisoned within the walls of their premises.

The lines indicate the places where synovia (or a fluid resembling white of egg) is interposed between the different structures. ]

Looking toward the quarters of the horse, we perceive the spines of the lumbar and sacral bones arranged in so peculiar a manner as to excite remark. Those of the loins bend forward, while those of the haunch incline backward, thus leaving a free space dividing the uppermost bones of two neighboring regions. There must be a reason for so evident a design. Inspecting the last lumbar bone, we ascertain it to be united by its lateral processes, yet it does not touch the first sacral body, all other parts of the chain joining at their centers.

Here is cause for reflection! What takes place at this spot which could render imperative such an arrangement? In what action is the inclination of the trunk so opposite to the position of the quarters as to render imperative such a special provision as is here exemplified in the skeleton? In prancing, in rearing, and in jumping, the hind legs are firmly planted upon the earth; then, by exertion of the powerful muscles of the quarters, the forward trunk is raised. This action could not have been exhibited had the spines of the sacral bones ranged in the same direction as those of the lumbar vertebræ; and to enforce the reason of this evident provision a free space characterizes this particular joint, others being formed by the interposition of cartilage.

The skeleton of the quarters is characterized by further distinctive peculiarities. The sacral bones are fixed one to another, and joining them at the spine is the huge hip-bone. This is the heaviest of the many weighty pieces which compose the osseous frame of the horse. It is irregular in form, and remarkable for an unusually rugged exterior. An anatomist, by simply inspecting it, could designate its uses, so emphatically is everywhere written the origin and insertion of powerful motor muscles. In every ridge, in every indentation, in every inequality anatomy discovers such a purpose; thus, when “the gnarled and bossy” developments upon this bone are viewed in conjunction with the solid and uneven appearance of the lower osseous supports of the hind limb, no person properly instructed can doubt that the quarters are peculiarly the seat of muscular power in the equine race.

Then the angular arrangement of the bones suggests the immediate purpose of flexion and extension. “Yes,” interrupts the reader, “that is true; but supposing the loose bones of the skeleton only to exist, what was to suggest the angularity of arrangement?” Such a fact could be thus readily ascertained. The bodies of other animals would inform the anatomist of the relative situations of the stifle and the elbow joints, while the different lengths and points of bearing in the fore and hind extremities would instruct him concerning all the rest.

But no knowledge could enable the anatomist to infer the gracefulness of form and flow of line which characterizes the body of the horse, even when deprived of its outward investment. Here is a sketch of the quarter after partial dissection. It scarcely awakens the disgust which anatomical labors generally create. The elegance which distinguishes the living creature is hardly lost--certainly it is not entirely destroyed--and the author is acquainted with no other body which could equally endure so harsh a test.

The inferior bones of the subjoined sketch lead to the foot; but as the osseous structure of this part was illustrated in a previous sketch, and as the fore and hind feet of the horse are in the leading particulars alike, the author will not fill valuable space by unnecessary repetition. However, the hind foot of the horse being the point whence all the strain of propulsion must proceed, the part, from such a cause alone, will be liable to certain distortions. The evils engendered by the cruel impatience of mankind, which forces the colt into too early labor, causes the natural position of the member to become altered. The pastern bones grow to be erect, and, should the toil still be enforced, the shank bone afterward projects. If these warnings are disregarded, inhumanity provokes the heels to be drawn upward, and a valuable helpmate is thus incapacitated from assisting man in his earthly task.

While writing of the horse, it should not be forgotten that in this country there is another animal which properly belongs to the equine race, and which is liable to most of the evils as well as worthy of much of the commendation that has been already pronounced, as though these referred only to one specimen of the tribe. The donkey is much misunderstood. Because its name has become a figure of reproach, no writer hitherto has dilated seriously upon its requirements, although several have been ignorantly sentimental, where suffering needed only truth to plead in its behalf. The animal must have its uses, or its breed would not be preserved.

The fact establishes that the creature is of service to mankind, since the life, whose season of utility has expired, like the dodo, soon ceases to exist. It is, however, chiefly the property of those whose feelings are subject to their necessities. The purchase of such a chattel is comparatively easy; the food is the refuse of the stable; but the work is often disproportionately heavy, for the ass too frequently belongs to those whose daily round of toil would tax the strength of the largest horse.

The prejudice which encircles this miserable being appears to be countenanced even in the dissecting rooms of the veterinary profession. Anatomy is a science the only merit of which depends upon its being a literal record of facts; yet students, at the before-mentioned places, are fond of alluding to the larynx of the ass, as displaying a peculiar development, which accounts for the difference of voice between the last-named animal and the horse. The author could never discover such a curiosity, nor is any necessary, when the peculiarity of the two sounds is attentively noticed. One is a nasal tone, modulated by the flutter of the nostrils; the other is a harsh, grating noise, produced by energetically inhaling and expelling the atmosphere through the extended pipe of the animal’s trachea.

The donkey labors, however, beyond the care of its enslaver and without the region of human sympathy. Be its toil exhaustive, let it work without cessation throughout the day and far into the night, no eye regards its fatigue with commiseration. It is an object only to laugh at. The popular belief is, that the tribe is so peculiarly hardy as to be altogether removed from the necessities, the liabilities, or the accidents common to every other form of life. All grades of existence which men please to neglect, they generally designate as “hardy.” Human beings, however, notoriously become less “hardy” as knowledge is enlarged and as life becomes better cared for. Will the time ever arrive when perception can embrace that which we now view only as an object of fun, and when the donkey will be regarded as entitled to share the consideration bestowed upon all the other inhabitants of earth?

The country is not secure, the people are not released from barbarism, while the pressure of want can blind the nation to the lawful needs of the lives which surround and which serve it. Civilization must be far from perfected, when an inquiry concerning the man who has beheld a dead donkey can make a large assemblage laugh. The author has, however, known poor families to be plunged into deep distress because the assinine form of existence was _not_ immortal. His experience may, probably, be peculiar, but it is opposed to the stale jest of our theaters; for when he was demonstrator at the Royal Veterinary College, he used to dispute with the man who supplied donkeys for the pupils to dissect, whether the institution should or should not bear the loss of such as died before their lives were required by the school. These creatures were bought at Smithfield, and brought to Saint Pancras for animals enjoying health; they were wanted to endure but a few days; yet the author has seen three carcasses anticipate this brief interval of permitted existence.

The author can further testify that, among the scores of carcasses which he has dissected, he never examined the body of a donkey, however young it might have been, that he did not encounter appalling proofs of internal injuries--injuries which had resulted in change of structure, and which would have consigned the horse to the knacker’s yard. Yet the animals thus maimed were working up to the date of purchase; the inability to move was attributed to the obstinacy which is generously supposed to characterize the ill-treated animal, and the blows fell heavier in proportion as its actual condition should have appealed to human forbearance.

To properly comprehend the sufferings of the quadruped, we must know the country whence it is derived, and be acquainted with the soil it is fitted to inhabit. The wild ass delights in the sandy desert of a tropical region, and for the products of such a locality a taste is, by the English representative, retained. It lives and thrives upon the spontaneous herbage of the arid waste. The heat, under which other forms of life appear to languish, fills the donkey with animation. The comparative size of its intestines fit it to store away that amount of water which in the land of its nativity is proverbially scarce.

The donkey in England is dragged into a wintry climate, rendered more inhospitable by the low temperature which is the most prominent characteristic of the country. In cold and in wet, the native of a tropical soil must lead a miserable existence. In Britain, however, it breathes and breeds; but it is here on the limits of even its power to endure. In Scotland the tribe is all but unknown. Where it can live, however, no one thinks of its real condition; no mortal is so weak as to waste pity upon its suffering. Its toil is without other limit than the pleasure of its master; when the day’s work is done, the nearest lane is the only stable ready to receive it.

The author has often, when passing down some narrow and unfrequented highway, during the early part of December, encountered a miserable group of beings endeavoring to afford each other a little warmth by crowding close together. The weather at this season is piercing cold. The ground is squashy, and moisture loads the atmosphere. The fierce wind bends the bare twigs of the adjacent hedge, and the temperature is of that kind which heralds the Christmas frost. It is not yet so low as to numb sensation; but it leaves the edge of feeling unblunted, that sense may fully appreciate the heavy misery, before whose wildness all nature moans and crouches. In such a place, and at such a season, the author has been made sad by the living anguish which the preceding illustration feebly depicts.

The donkey, in this country, is very unfortunate in the class whom it principally serves. The lower order, though with impulses untainted by politeness, yet, in the struggle for life, have little leisure to quicken their perceptions or to cultivate their feelings. Their own necessities forbid them to be generous, and render somewhat rude their intercourse. They exist not within the amenities, but upon the borders of society; the law, under whose protection the affluent breathe in comfort, is to them a cruel institution, which forces them to endure, which they recognize only as a restraint, and with which they are powerless openly to contend.

In towns, the homes of such a race are without attractions. The very poor are ignorant of domesticity. They eat and live abroad, and seek their lodgings only when utter weariness makes them heedless where they rest. If the lodging be large enough to conceal, it possesses all the requirements poverty demands. To be larger is to be colder; for the ignorant study rather to drag on existence from day to day than think to promote the health, which is their only real possession.

When such a people rise in their sphere of contention, and can afford to discard the hand-barrow for the donkey-tray, the inferior animal can expect no separate lodging. That will hardly be provided for a beast which the master was too abased to conceive necessary for the members of his family.

The donkey is hailed as a new possession; and for security, not from any loftier consideration, it has to share the proprietor’s home. No hole can be too narrow, too dark, or too stifling for the animal’s abode, so that it provides the safe keeping for which it is sought. Humanity shudders as it pictures the strange places which poverty may view as the fitting homes of its dependants!

The young horse may be stinted in its food, but it is spared from work until a certain period has arrived. All classes have their stated ages when the colt should first begin to labor; but the ass has no recognized season of rest, even for its immaturity. It is forced to work so soon as need can see in the growing body a capacity to assist. Foals are often to be seen dragging loaded trays about the streets of London, and the day’s toil is lengthened or shortened by the quickness or the slowness of the day’s sale. The food is, during this time, the refuse of the stock; seldom can the owner spare from his earnings that which will purchase fodder for the life which is the partner of his fatigues.

The donkey is harnessed for the early market. The costermonger rides with his family to make his bargains for the day; and the stock-in-trade being procured, he and they ride with it back again. The very poor never walk, save upon necessity, and seem never to conceive their animals can be tired or overladen. The wretched quadruped, on home being reached, is not released and permitted to rest. It has to support the tray while the family wash the stock, display the viands, and get their morning meal; after which it is started with a kick and a blow, and an exclamation of, “Come up, lazy! why, what ails ye, this marning?”

Animals have generally less ability to endure fatigue than have the human race; but if the donkey has to work before man’s daily round commences, so also do its toils increase after the period of mortal labor has been fulfilled. My readers must recollect to have frequently beheld the coster’s tray, now emptied of the green stock of the morning, but occupied by several shouting fellows, and drawn past the windows by a little donkey. The street purveyor of vegetables often travels far to dispose of his wares. But the green stuff distributed, he considers his labors for the day to be ended. He then has time to appreciate his own sensations. He flings his body full length upon the tray, and, with the good nature which belongs to his class, does not refuse a ride to any wayfarer so long as the vehicle can accommodate another passenger. All, then, fully impressed with the popular credulities concerning the donkey, commence shouting and thumping, while the animal, which has been upon its legs before the light began, is forced to travel homeward at a pace which is compelled to be faster in proportion as it may be distant from its lodging.

In the country, the houses being more separated, the animal is deprived of the frequent stoppages and the lighter draught of the towns. The pull is heavier, and the distances are longer; but still the donkey must progress until the master has earned a certain sum, without which he rarely turns the creature’s head toward his home. If the proprietors of asses have few faiths, they are all thoroughly imbued with one belief, which is, that the animal in their keeping cannot possibly feel exhaustion. Their credulity does not stay here. They are impressed with a conviction that no creature of the donkey tribe has any sort of feeling. The quadruped, they know, can bear an unusual amount of beating with the thickest possible bludgeon, and simply requires only the coarsest of refuse for sustenance. Moreover, such conviction leaves the proprietor his own convenience to consider, when imposing burdens on “the beast within his gate.”

The last article of belief makes the man select the weakest portion of his dumb servant’s spine for a seat, when he is inclined to play the jockey. The reader, to whose notice diagrams of the equine spine have been submitted, knows that the loins alone are unsupported by other bones. The absence of that which renders this region the weakest division of the vertebræ, also makes this portion of the quadruped’s back the most yielding and elastic. Here the fashion of vulgarity fixes the rider’s seat when he strides the ass. The veterinary student will remember that few of the lumbar bones in the carcasses he dissected, when at college, were in their integrity. The author has encountered two, three, and even four bones of the six which compose the part locked together by osseous deposit.

Such a form of union proves the animal to have suffered inflammation. The injury must have been endured and the agony must have run its course; for an osseous junction is positive evidence that all the stages of inflammation have been survived. Few persons, when they behold the young donkey stagger under the weight of its six-foot rider, care to think of this; nay, the writer has beheld really worthy gentlemen stand and enjoy the scene of activity presented at evening time by a rural gipsy’s encampment. The women were laughing, the men were shouting, while the more jovial of the gang were racing on the common. Those poor donkeys, which already had been goaded to the performance of no ordinary day’s toil, were carrying terrific loads, and beaten till they galloped, despite the deep-seated anguish with which they were afflicted.