THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES. 359 



period he cannot be returned afterwards. They are also convenient to 

 the purchaser, who can thus in a h\rge town soon find a horse that will 

 suit him, and which, from this restriction as to the returning the animal, 

 he will obtain twenty or thirty per cent, below the dealer's prices. Although 

 an auction may seem to offer a fair open competition, there is no place at 

 which it is more necessary for a person not much accustomed to horses to 

 take with him an experienced friend, and when there to depend on his own 

 judgment or that of ids friend, heedless of the observations or manoeuvres 

 of the by-standers, the exaggerated commendations of some horses, and 

 the thousand faults found witli others. There are always numerous 

 groups of low dealers, copers, and chaunters, whose business it is to 

 delude and deceive. 



The principal repositories in London, are Tattersall's, at Hyde Park 

 Corner, on Monday and Tlmrsday, at one o'clock, for racers, hunters, and 

 superior horses of every kind, although many that are good for nothing find 

 the-ir way there. Young's, at the Bazaar in King Street, Portman Square, 

 on Tuesday and Saturday, at twelve o'clock, for horses of every descrip- 

 tion; and where, likewise, horses are always standing for private sale. 

 Dixon's, in Barbican, for macliiners of every kind, and generally the best 

 of them, with occasionally good hackney; and Morris's, in St. Martin's 

 Lane, for draught-horses and hackneys of every grade and value. Horses 

 should be sent two days before the sale ; and it should be so contrived, if 

 possible, that they should be placed about or beyond the middle of the cata- 

 logue; so that they may be brought out when those persons who lie abed 

 until after noon, begin to appear. If the horses are bought in, the owner 

 will have to pay 3^. 6d. per night for their keep, and 6s. for the offering 

 them for sale : if they are sold, he will be charged with five per cent, for 

 the auction-duty, five per cent, for commission, and the keep; and the 

 balance may be received the day after the period of trial expires. 



One of the regulations at the Bazaar is exceedingly fair, both with 

 regard to the previous owner and the purchaser, viz: 



" When a horse, having been warranted sound, shall be returned within 

 the prescribed period, on account of unsoundness, a certificate from a vete- 

 rinary surgeon, particularly describing the unsoundness, must accompany 

 the horse so returned ; when, if it be agreed to by the veterinary surgeon 

 of the establishment, the amount received for the horse shall be immediately 

 paid back; but if the veterinary surgeon of the establishment should not 

 confirm the certificate, then, in order to avoid further dispute, one of the 

 veterinary surgeons of the college shall be called in, and his decision shall 

 be final, and the expense of such umpire shall be borne by the party in error. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

 THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES. 



The skin of the horse difTers little in construction from that of other 

 animals. It consists of three parts, the cuticle or scarf skin externally — ■ 

 very thin, and somewhat transparent, as is proved by the action of a blister 

 when the cuticule is raised from the true skin beneath, in the form of 

 almost pellucid bladders. The dandrifF or scurf, which is brushed out in 

 grooming, consists of scales or portions of the cuticule detached in tho 

 gradual change or renewal of this membrane. The parts within the frame 



