256 Grooming, 



notion carried by some people, that they interdict the use of the 

 currycomb and brush, in the case of all such Horses, as are kept on 

 a plan of simplicity, by being permitted to breathe the fresh air, to 

 move about as they please, and to eat and drink, when it is agreeable to 

 them. I shall take upon me, to answer this question for my readers. 

 It is a mere bugbear of the imagination, a pliantom, conjured up by 

 ignorance and superstition. For, if the phrase have any intelligible 

 meaning at all, it must imply, either that the diameters, of the excre- 

 tories of the skin, are actually enlarged, by the operation of grooming, 

 or, that the orifices in the cuticle, through which the perspired flind ex- 

 hales^ being previously closed, are opened by the use of the curry- 

 comb and brush ; and hence it is inferred, that the Horse will be 

 liable to catch cold. But this is purely begging the question, and 

 the whole argument proceeds upon a mere assumption. I should 

 say therefore, in the language of the logicians, that the datum in 

 this case, ought rather to be a postulate. Nor indeed, even if it could 

 be proved, that the pores are actually opened by grooming, would it 

 by any means follow, that harm must necessarily accrue to the animal, 

 from this circumstance. 



The truth is, that both notions are purely hypothetical, and ought 

 therefore to be discarded. Let us turn, then, from this unsafe mode 

 of considering the subject, and look at the great body of facts, which 

 bear upon the case, both directly and indirectly. Now, it will readily 

 be admitted, even by those who are the greatest alarmists as to the evils 

 to be apprehended from opening the pores of such Horses, as are exposed 

 to the elements ; that good grooming is of the greatest possible advan- 

 tage to those which are highly fed, «tand in hot stables, and are also 

 warmly cloathed. No fears seem to be entertained of opening the 



