ON THE HAIR. 



177 



and others, are contradistinguished by the greater length and 

 consequent roughness, the coarseness, and stubbornness of the 

 hair. 



" With regard to color, there is some connection between 

 that of the skin, the hair, and the eyes ; black horses have 

 black skins and dark eyes; milk-white and cream-colored 

 horses, light skins and wall eyes. The three primitive colors 

 — those of which all the others appear to be either shades or 

 combinations, are white, red, and black. According to Rich- 

 erand, the lighter the shade the finer the hair ; as a proof of 

 which, he says, there are fewest black hairs in a square inch 

 of skin, more chestnut, and most light-colored. This asser- 

 tion our observation appears to confirm ; for it is comparative- 

 ly uncommon to meet with a black thorough-bred horse. 



" Most animals, at certain seasons of the year, lose one 

 pilous covering, to have it renewed or replaced by another. 

 The pulpy substance at the root of the hair shrinks and dries 

 up, the stem consequently, no longer supplied with nourish- 

 ment, loses its support and falls off ; at the same time, a new 

 pulp appears by the side of the old one, which, during the 

 absorption of the latter, grows and gives root to the new 

 hair ; so that the pulp and stem only, and not the bulb, un- 

 dergo the process of regeneration. 



" The hair is speedily reproduced upon any denuded part ; 

 so that we are not afraid of the skin remaining bare, when 

 the cutis vera (and consequently the bulbs of the hair) have 

 not been injured ; indeed, hair will be regenerated though it 

 be plucked out by the roots. In the case of broken knees, 

 however, it occasionally happens that the contusion of the fall 

 is followed by more or less disorganization of the cutis, and 

 then a scar or bare place remains ; or a few light-colored or 

 white hairs only grow upon the place, which appear to be 

 the offspring of defective pulps. 



" The time of casting the coat, one that may be compared 

 to the moulting season in birds, is often the epoch from which 

 we may date the origin of disease, and always when more or 

 less debility reigns in the system. 



