SWEATING. 199 



of water be not speedily restored, the animal's health 

 will suffer. Thus we may see that the proper object of 

 sweating a horse is to reduce the amount of fat, and 

 not the amount of water there is in his system ; and that 

 as soon as we fail to find that oily matter is given off, 

 to any appreciable extent, with his perspiration, so 

 soon should we stop giving him any more sweats. I 

 need hardly point out how opposed to common sense 

 and to physiological teaching, is the practice of stinting 

 a horse of water after sweating him. In fact, want of 

 a due supply of water interferes with the whole process 

 of nutrition. " The activity of absorption by the blood- 

 vessels depends upon the due fluidity of the materials 

 to be absorbed, for it is well known that no fluids 

 quickly penetrate the vessels, but such as are of lesser 

 density than the blood." (Williams.) 



From the foregoing remarks we may draw the practi- 

 cal conclusion, that we may take, during training, the 

 state of the perspiration as a guide by which to judge 

 of the amount of fat in the horse's system, and that 

 we should regulate his work, so that the sweat, after his 

 gallops, may not completely lose its greasy feel, until with- 

 in a few days of the race for which he is being trained. 

 This is, of course, supposing that he is one of the sort 

 that will stand being " drawn fine." 



Artificial Sweating. By this term I mean any 

 process of sweating which is accomplished without the 

 aid of exercise, such as that by the Turkish bath, or by 

 clothing the horse very heavily in a warm, closed up 

 stable, &c. Such sweating, I think, is most objection- 

 able, unless indeed the state of the animal's limbs 



