blood or the mechanism; whoever is for blood, let him take two
brothers of any sort or kind, and breed one up in plenty, the
other upon a barren heath; I fancy he will find, that a different
mechanism of the body will be acquired to the two brothers by the
difference of their living, and that the blood of him brought up
on the barren heath, will not be able to contend with the
mechanism of the other, brought up in a land of plenty. Now if
this difference of shape will make a difference in the performance
of the animal, it will be just the same thing in its consequences,
whether this imperfection of shape be produced by scarcity of
foot, or entailed by the laws of nature; if so, does it signify
whether the colt be got by Turk, Barb, or what kind of blood his
dam be of? or where shall we find one certain proof of the
efficacy of blood in any Horse produced in any age or any country,
independent of the laws of mechanics.

If it should be urged, that these foreign Horses get better colts
than their descendants, that therefore the blood of foreign ones
is best, I answer, no; for that according to the number of foreign
Stallions we have had in this kingdom, there have been more
reputed and really bad than good ones, which would not happen in
the case of Horses, who come from the same country, and are of the
same extraction, if this goodness was in the blood only. But the
true reason why foreign Horses get better colts than their
descendants, if they do get better, is that (mechanism alike)
their descendants from which we breed, are generally such Horses
as have been thoroughly tried, consequently much strained, and
gone through strong labour and fatigue; whereas the foreign Horse
has perhaps seldom or never known what labour was; for we find the
Turk a sober grave person, always riding a foot pace, except on