Grooming. 257 



pores of their skins too mucli, by superfluous grooming ; but^ on 

 the contrary, it is a kind of axiom in the master's mouth, that good 

 grooming, both on the score of their condition and appearaijce, is sc 

 cond to nothing but good feeding. 



If, therefore, no feai*s are ever entertained, about opening the 

 pores, in the instance of cloalhed and pampered Horses, wliose skins 

 are exposed to such prodigious vicissitudes of temperature ; whence 

 this unnecessary alarm on the subject of grooming those which, com- 

 paratively speaking, arc subject to none. But, though I feel it 

 incumbent upon me to expose the absurdity of the ordinary notions 

 on this subject, because, as it seems to me, they are decidedly found- 

 ed in error, yet, I have no hesitation in admitting-, most readily, that 

 grooming is by no meQ.ns so necessart/ on the §core of health to such 

 Horses as are kept abroad, as to those which are stoved and cloathed. 

 For, I think it cannot be denied that that curious excretion of the 

 skin of Horses called dandriff (the chemical properties of which 

 shew that it is thrown off from the blood in order to effect some great 

 salutary purpose to the system) will be prodigiously encreased by the 

 use of the currycomb and brush. And if I be right in this conjec- 

 ture, it follows as a matter of course, that it cannot but be advisable 

 to encourage this natural excretion in all cases, but especially in the 

 instance of those Horses which are treated in the most artificial man- 

 ner. But, in order that I may not assume too much, and lest 1 

 should get entangled, myself, in the mazes of hypothesis which, I 

 have so frequently reprobated, I will not insist too strongly upon a 

 notion, which though highly probable, J confess myself unable t^ 

 prove \he truth of. 



ST 



