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eleven months, and casts it in the twelfth. It is not a fixed number of days that
the stallion takes to impregnate the mare; it may be one, two, three, or more.
An ass in covering will impregnate more expeditiously than a stallion. The act
of intercourse with horses is not laborious as it is with oxen. In both sexes the
horse is the most salacious of animals next after the human species. The
breeding faculties of the younger horses may be stimulated beyond their years
if they be supplied with good feeding in abundance. The mare as a rule bears
only one foal; occasionally she has two, but never more. A mare has been
known to cast two mules; but such a circumstance was regarded as unnatural
and portentous.
The horse then is first fitted for breeding purposes at the age of two and a
half years, but achieves full sexual maturity when it has ceased to shed teeth,
except it be naturally infertile; it must be added, however, that some horses
have been known to impregnate the mare while the teeth were in process of
shedding.
The horse has forty teeth. It sheds its first set of four, two from the upper
jaw and two from the lower, when two and a half years old. After a year’s
interval, it sheds another set of four in like manner, and another set of four
after yet another year’s interval; after arriving at the age of four years and six
months it sheds no more. An instance has occurred where a horse shed all his
teeth at once, and another instance of a horse shedding all his teeth with his
last set of four; but such instances are very rare. It consequently happens that
a horse when four and a half years old is in excellent condition for breeding
purposes.
The older horses, whether of the male or female, are the more generatively
productive. Horses will cover mares from which they have been foaled and
mares which they have begotten; and, indeed, a troop of horses is only
considered perfect when such promiscuity of intercourse occurs. Scythians
use pregnant mares for riding when the embryo has turned rather soon in the
womb, and they assert that thereby the mothers have all the easier delivery.
Quadrupeds as a rule lie down for parturition, and in consequence the young
of them all come out of the womb sideways. The mare, however, when the
time for parturition arrives, stands erect and in that posture casts its foal.
The horse in general lives for eighteen or twenty years; some horses live
for twenty-five or even thirty, and if a horse be treated with extreme care, it
may last on to the age of fifty years; a horse, however, when it reaches thirty
years is regarded as exceptionally old. The mare lives usually for twenty-five
years, though instances have occurred of their attaining the age of forty. The
male is less long-lived than the female by reason of the sexual service he is
called on to render; and horses that are reared in a private stable live longer
1124
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156