face were evidently quickly fading. The cut in his upper lip had healed. The right nasal bone was loosened from its articulations; but there was no fracture. On carefully practising auscultation, the heart's action was found to be feeble, though there was no bruit the valves acting efficiently. The pulse was weak, very compressible, and rather above 100. The left lung was healthy, but over the apex of the right there was dulness, with evident signs of congestion. On either side, at the back of the neck, there was considerable stiffness, which was ascertained to exist chiefly in the tendinous attachments of the trapezius muscle to the occipital bone, ligamentum nuchæ, dorsal vertebræ, and spine of the scapula. The immense development of the muscles about the shoulders and chest was very remarkable; they stood out prominently, and as little encumbered with fat as if they had been cleaned out with a scalpel. In firmness they resembled cartilage. The same conditions were also apparent in the recti muscles of the abdominal wall, the tendinous intersections (lineæ transverse) of which were strongly marked.

'But with all this splendid development it was evident that Heenan had received a shock from which his system was only slowly recovering; though whether this loss of power was due to the punishment received in the fight, or to the hard training which he had previously undergone, may be a disputed point. As physiologists, it seems to us highly probable that his training had been too prolonged and too severe. When Heenan went into training on Wednesday 23rd

EVILS OF OVER-TRAINING.

71

September, just eleven weeks before the match, his weight was 15st. 7lbs. As he stepped into the ring on the 10th inst. he was exactly 14 stones. At the same time King weighed 13 stones, though he was three quarters of an inch taller than Heenan, whose height is 6ft. 1 in. Those who know what severe training means, will, perhaps, agree with us that Heenan was probably in better condition five weeks before meeting his antagonist than on the morning of his defeat, although, when he stripped for fighting, the lookers on all agreed that he seemed to promise himself an easy victory, while exulting in his fine proportions, and splendid muscular development.

'It is now clearly proved that Heenan went into the contest with much more muscular than vital power.

'Long before he had met with any severe punishment-indeed, as he states, in the third round-he felt faint, breathed with difficulty, and, as he described it, his respiration was 'roaring.' He declares that he received more severe punishment at the hands of Sayers than he did from King, yet at the termination of the former fight, which lasted upwards of two hours, he was so fresh as to leap over two or three hurdles, and distance many of his friends in the race. It was noticed on the present occasion that his physique had deteriorated, and that he looked very much older than at his last appearance in the ring.

"Without offering any opinion as to the merits of the combatants, it is certain that Heenan was in a state of very deteriorated health when he faced his opponent,

and it is fair to conclude that that deterioration was due in a great measure to the severity of training which he had undergone.

'As with the mind, so with the body, undue and prolonged exertion must end in depression of power. In the process of the physical education of the young, in the training of our recruits, or in the sports of the athlete, the case of Heenan suggests a striking commentary of great interest in a physiological point of view.

'Whilst exercise, properly so called, tends to development and health, excessive exertion produces debility and decay. In these times of over-excitement and over-competition in the race of life, the case we now put on record may be studied with advantage.'

There will be no necessity for me to enter into the details of the daily training required for those horses which have not raced, nor undergone much galloping practice previously to being put into training, further than to say, that instead of being put through mere walking exercise they will have to go through alternate walks and spins, the same as the two and the three-year old, for at least two months, at the expiration of which they will require long slow gallops of three or four miles, at three-quarter speed, twice in every week for a month, so as to ensure their stride. being even and measured, without which no horse can stay over a long course. For another six weeks they may enter on precisely the same work as that recommended for training the horse that has previously been raced. By this it will be seen that it will take

FORMATION OF THE STEEPLECHASE HORSE. 73

just two weeks over double the time required for training the horse that has previously been raced, to get the hunter, hack, or untried colt fit to run; and the whole reason is, that the amount of galloping practice required for giving them action and supporting their muscles and joints will be more than double that of a previously trained animal, since you have nothing to teach the latter, and only have to arrive at a certain condition of body to fit him for his contest.

THE STEEPLECHASE HORSE.

As to conformation I have little more to demand than that stated as being desirable for a racehorse, with the following few exceptions:

1. The withers should be higher and the shoulders longer.

2. The girth should be deeper, and the back or false ribs shorter and lighter.

3. The hips should be wider, and the pelvis broader. The reasons are these: unless the withers be high and shoulders long, there will not be sufficient leverage to enable him to rise well at his fences; as well as to clear whatever obstacles may come across him when galloping, in the shape of ridge and furrows, drains, hillocks, &c.; and unless the hips and pelvis be broad, together with light back ribs and a loose flank, the haunches cannot be dashed under the body in the form required for a big jumper.

The only parts, then, in which I consider the steeplechase horse should differ from the racehorse, are the

shoulders, back ribs, hips and haunches; otherwise, all else should be similar.

ACTION.

Unless the horse gets his hind legs well under him, and appears almost to balance himself on them as he walks, lifting his hind feet rather high, I should not consider it desirable.

In the gallop the style of going in the steeplechase horse should differ from that in the racehorse entirely. The former should seem to be a dashing savage goer, bending his knees well; while the latter should go gliding along with a straight reach as smoothly and calmly as a cutter yacht through the water.

FURTHER QUALIFICATIONS.

A quick eye, a determined spirit, and great activity are essentially necessary in the steeplechaser,-i.e. he should have a foot always to spare, and a quick eye to direct it in every emergency, without which he will never be safe to ride or back.

These are the great attributes of the steeplechase horse, and very frequently do they render a very bad racehorse a fair performer over a country. Pace and action alone will never make a steeplechase horse, and a coward should always be discarded; for if the horse be taking every opportunity of cutting it, he will assuredly succeed in either doing so, falling, or being cleverly defeated. Such brutes are unworthy of the name of steeplechasers, and the sooner they be con