THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY 247 



double task to perform in digesting a larger quantity 

 of nutriment than usual to make up the increased wants 

 of the constitution, and thus the evil is increased by 

 adding the further deterioration of this organ to the 

 others. I know of no state of morbid condition which 

 often proves so obstinate as this, and which is often 

 at last only to give way to a good salt marsh run. 

 Drastic purgatives, or violent remedies, as the mineral 

 acids, when injudiciously continued, produce the con- 

 dition very quickly, and sometimes irrecoverably. 

 Another principal cause of want of condition, is the 

 alternation of heat with cold, a sudden check to the 

 natural or acquired heat of the body, particularly 

 if aggravated by the evaporation of a perspiring state 

 and great previous exertion, as a sudden check after a 

 severe burst with the hounds ; this, if it should not 

 bring on topical inflammation of some vital organ, yet 

 frequently acts on the outer coverings of the body ; 

 the capillaries of the skin appear to become constringed, 

 and the uncteous matter secreted by the sebatious 

 glands seems either vitiated or lost, by which the elas- 

 ticity and pliancy of the hide becomes lessened, and 

 the hair, instead of lying smooth and appearing glossy, 

 for want of the uncteous secretion, becomes elevated 

 and feels hard and dry to the touch. The dandril or 

 scurf adheres closely to the skin, instead of separating 

 and falling in daily scales, and adds likewise its share 

 to the general derangement of the outer expansion. I 

 have already alluded to that consent of parts which is 

 so apparent between the skin and the digestive organs, 

 and that it follows in almost every instance w^hen one 

 of these becomes aflected, the other takes on a morbid 

 state also. From much observation, I am disposed to 

 think that the sympathy between the skin and alimen- 

 tary canal is so intimate, that they change the order 



