282 HORSE AND MAN. 



be very trifling, and certainly insufficient to make 

 any perceptible difference in ease of movement. 

 Moreover, the hair so removed was distributed over 

 the whole body and limbs, and not hung in any spot 

 where it might cause hindrance to action. 



Yet another ' reason ' is advanced by grooms. 

 ' We are obliged to have our hair cut regularly, and 

 so ought the horse.' But the hair of man, like that 

 of the mane and tail, is permanent, and not deciduous, 

 and so the argument is beside the point at issue. If 

 we were gifted with summer and winter heads of 

 hair, there might be some force in it, but, as the 

 reader will easily perceive, the two cases are not 

 parallel. Moreover, women, as a rule, wear their 

 hair long. 



Mayhew concludes his long and elaborate indict- 

 ment against the practice with the following words 

 of warning : — 



' The advent of the summer coat is delayed, and 

 the system seems to suffer greatly during the subse- 

 quent period of changing the coat. The pace flags, 

 the spirits fail, and the quadruped becomes more 

 susceptible to disease at a time of year when equine 

 diseases are commonly more general and more 

 virulent. 



' The master who makes the welfare of his horse 

 subservient to the idle prejudices of his groom, is 

 fitly punished in the lengthened period of his animal's 



