54 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



tion. But if for a reason which it may be difficult 

 to explain, the nutrition of the anatomical elements 

 is insufficient, or the circulation is not normal, 

 whether there is anaemia or hyperaemia of the nervous 

 substances, these dynamic disturbances appear as ner- 

 vous disturbances, which often constitute a patholog- 

 ical condition. 



Horse-back riding, as we have seen, is one of the 

 most energetic modifiers of the circulation ; it dis- 

 tributes the blood equally to every part of the capil- 

 lary net-work, giving to each part its due proportion, 

 by maintaining a due tension in every part, by equal- 

 izing the temperature ; it prevents equally anaemia 

 and hyperaemia, and sanguineous stagnation, by the 

 impulsion which it gives to the circulatory phenom- 

 ena, and aids nutrition by the acceleration of the 

 respiratory and digestive phenomena. It is by its 

 effect upon the reactions of the blood to the nervous 

 system that horse-back riding produces such a happy 

 influence. 



5. Digestion. — The effect of horse-back riding 

 upon the functions of the system, is especially re- 

 markable upon that of digestion. It stimulates the 

 appetite — excites and perfects digestion, favors ab- 

 sorption — in fact, to use a trivial expression, ** it 

 makes the bits go down." These are not the only 

 results of the new energy imparted to the functions 

 which we have studied, and all of which concur in 

 the accomplishment of this special one ; it exercises a 



