72 HORSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



surface glued together. It lines the openings of the oil 

 and sweat tubes, and surrounds each hair. Its presence 

 affords protection to the skin and checks the outpouring of 

 the oil and perspiration. Hence, when horses are turned 

 out in the open, without adequate clothing, they should, 

 on no account, be groomed. This process is intended 

 to remove as much of the outer or scarf-skin as pos- 

 sible, and, by friction, to stimulate the secretion of the 

 oily and watery fluids; the former of which protects 

 the skin from the action of t water, and also assists 

 in maintaining the internal temperature of the body 

 by rendering the coat bright and glossy, a condition 

 that checks the radiation, as well as the absorption of 

 heat. Hence a horse, with a polished skin, will not be 

 as liable to be chilled by wet or cold, nor to be as unduly 

 heated by the rays of the sun, as he would be, were his 

 coat dull. This immunity, however, will only last for 

 a few hours, or until the weather affects the hair. 



The skin acts as an assistant to the lungs in giving off 

 carbonic acid gas, and thus aids in purifying the blood- 

 The cold produced by the evaporation of perspiration 

 materially assists in lowering the temperature of the 

 body to its normal degree, when it lias been raised 

 beyond it by exercise. Hence the necessity of the free 

 secretion of perspiration by the skin of hard-worked 

 horses. 



Apart from the foregoing considerations, we may see 

 that the fact of the skin being in a healthy state will tend 

 to induce a like condition of the stomach, intestines, 

 and air passages ; for the skin is continuous with the 

 mucous membranes which line these organs; hence, 



