96 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



and harness, vegetable oil burns and destroys any leather 

 it is applied to, disfiguring as well as impairing it by 

 deep cracks, crossing each other like network (declared 

 in Johnson's Dictionary to mean " anything reticulated or 

 decussated at equal distances, with interstices between 

 the intersections"). 



But just as the texture of linen is infinitely finer and 

 more beautiful than that of broadcloth or flannel, so is 

 vegetable oil clearer and more inodorous than animal 

 oil, for which reasons the former, instead of the latter, 

 is almost invariably used by perfumers in concocting 

 what is sold by them as " hair oil," which, when extracted 

 from almonds, olives, or any other vegetable substance, 

 is, although highly scented, exactly as injurious to hair 

 as it would be to harness; and thus it is lamentable to 

 observe young people blooming around us in all directions 

 becoming prematurely bald-headed, and older ones more 

 or less rheumatic, dyspeptic, &c., from having by their 

 own acts and deeds, namely, by rubbing their heads and 

 clothing their bodies with the wrong substances, foolishly 

 deserted the animal kingdom to which they belong, to go 

 over to an alien, that, for the purposes for which they seek 

 its protection, is really their enemy. 



