VALUE OF CLOTHING AND CLEANLINESS. 109 



and constant exercise. Extremes should always be avoided, 

 and if we are not inclined to recommend the practice 

 of some veterinarians, who, following, or rather exaggerating, 

 the late Professor Coleman, turn their horses adrift the 

 coldest nights when suffering from severe affections of the 

 respiratory organs, and that even without the slightest 

 covering, we nevertheless condemn the hoods and breast- 

 plates, and bandages, and two or three heavy rugs, which 

 oppress and interfere with the proper aeration of the skin's 

 surface. It must not be supposed by this that we look upon 

 the animal skin as a true breathing surface, through which 

 oxygen is absorbed as by the mucous membrane of the lungs. 

 The skin exhales freely, and the current of air on the surface 

 favours the exhalations, and accelerates the discharge of the 

 superficial cuticular cells, which are constantly replaced by 

 rapidly forming cells on a healthy skin. 



The error which uneducated persons commit is to regard 

 clothing as heat-giving, whereas it confines the natural heat 

 of the body, which is produced in direct ratio to the activity of 

 the breathing and the circulation. No animal, then, should 

 be swaddled so as to prevent it bending its limbs and lifting 

 its head, and seeking warmth in exertion. 



No animal should be permitted to shiver in the cold, and 

 it is a wise rule to adopt, that every creature should, to all 

 appearance, be comfortable. We find animals like human 

 beings, removed from a hot to a cold climate, suffering much 

 unless clothed in the latter, and I have seen fatal disease in 

 hairy dogs induced by exposure the first few months after 

 being imported into England from India, Spain, or Italy. 



But whatever animal has to be clothed, it should not be 

 oppressed with heavy sheets, such as we find, piled one over 

 the other, on our hunters and fashionable coach horses. A 

 wrinkle should be taken from the Frenchman, who is seen 



