GROOMS. 345 



function. Then, what right has ignorance to expect one to be idle when 

 the other is oppressed ? 



Perspiration only implies cuticular activity. It is a healthy action ; 

 the emission of the horse is only an efiFort of nature to cast off those 

 impurities which man obliges his prisoner to inhale. The clipped animal 

 must also perspire if it also inhabit the building, and remain free from 

 disease. The skin must equally exhale, as a law of its existence ; but 

 tke hair being short, and the surface of the body exposed, the heated 

 medium in which the creature stands may cause the moisture to evapo- 

 rate as rapidly as it is emitted. Still, all this will not satisfy the stable- 

 man. It is not only the wetness of the coat which he dreads, but it is 

 the presence of dirt that he abominates. Long hair attracts and pro- 

 tects mud, which, however, is easily removed from any substance, after 

 it ha'S been allowed to yield up its component moisture. 



Yiewingthe insensible perspiration as an established fact, the prevailing 

 customs are not unattended with danger. The advent of the summer's 

 covering is delayed, and the system seems to suffer greatly during the 

 subsequent 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 disorders are commonly more general and more 

 virulent. 



Yet, it may be urged, that in the winter season the roads are far 

 dirtier, and the long coat is so much more retentive and more difficult to 

 cleanse. Here again the argument returns to the groom, and to his dis- 

 taste for his avocation. It is true, a long-haired heel should not be made 

 clean after the usual fashion. The man should not take the horse outside 

 into the night air, and should not tie its head to the stable walls. He 

 should not dash a pail or two of cold water over the soiled and heated 

 memljers ; and should not lead the horse back to its stall, retiring to bed 

 with a comfortable conviction that he has done his duty. 



To fling about water necessitates little trouble, therefore it is a favorite 

 practice with all stable attendants. Whether it meets with equal favor 

 from the life whose heels have to sustain the deluge, no one has, hitherto, 

 been weak enough to inquire. That nature intentionally clothed the 

 horse's heels with long hair, to keep lowly-organized parts warm and 

 free from dust, is a fact neither thought of nor cared about. The man 

 specially retained to look after the quadrupeds cuts away the provision 

 which was instituted by the Source of all mercy; then applies cold 

 water to the organs which Wisdom saw reason to shelter, leaving the 

 members to chill and chap, while he retires to his repose. 



The animal, with its dripping heels, is hastily fastened in a stall. The 

 clipped legs of a horse are admirably adapted to exemplify the effects of 



