HIDE-BOUND. 371 



slow growth or decrease of the body, ' and appears equally to fit, 

 whether the horse is in the plumpest condition or reduced to a ske- 

 leton, but when a portion of it is distended to an extraordinary degree ni 

 the most powerful action of the muscles, it in a moment agam contracts 

 to its usual dimensions. It is principally indebted for this elasticity to 

 almost innumerable little glands which pour out an oily fluid that softens 

 and supples it. When the horse is in health, and every organ discharges 

 its proper functions, a certain quantity of this unctuous matter is spread 

 over the surface of the skin, and is contained in all the pores that pene- 

 trate its substance, and the skin is pliable, easily raised from the texture 

 beneath, easily doubled between the finger and thumb, and presenting 

 that peculiar yielding softness and elasticity which experience has proved 

 are the best proofs of the condition, that is, the general health of the 

 animal. Then, too, from the oiUness and softness of the skin, the hair 

 lies in its natural and proper direction, and is smooth and glossy,— 

 another proof of the condition of the horse. When the system is deranged, 

 and especially the digestive system, and the vessels concerned in the nou- 

 rishment of the animal cease to act, or act feebly, the vessels of the skm 

 immediately, and to a very marked degree, sympathize ; and this oily 

 secretion is no more thrown out, and the skin loses its pliancy, and it is 

 difficult or almost impossible to take it up between the finger and thumb, 

 and, losing its pliancy, it seems to cling to the animal, and we have that 

 peculiar feeling which we call 



HIDE-BOUND. 



Hide-bound is not so much a diminution of the cellular or fatty substance 

 between the skin and the muscles and bones beneath, as it is an alteration 

 in the skin itself. It is a hardness and unyieldingness of the skin from 

 the want of the oily matter on its surface, and in its substance, which has 

 just been mentioned. It is precisely the difference which is presented to 

 the feeling by well-curried and supple leather, and that which has become 

 dry and unyielding. 



The surface of the skin becoming dry and hard, the scales of the cuticle 

 no longer yield to the hair, but, separating themselves in every direction, 

 turn the hair various ways, and give that staring coat or irregular direc- 

 tion of the hair which accompanies want of condition. This state of the 

 skin, by proving the impaired functions of the vessels of the skin, 

 shows the impaired function of the vessels everywhere, and particularly 

 those of the stomach and bowels. The horseman should remember that 

 hide-bound is not so much a disease, as a symptom of disease, and parti- 

 cularly of the digestive organs ; and our remedies must be applied not so 

 much to the skin, (although we have, in friction and in warmth, most valu- 

 able agents in producing a healthy condition of the integuments,) as to the 

 cause of the binding of the coat and the state of the constitution generally. 

 Every disease that can affect the general system is likely to produce this 

 derangement of the functions of the skin. Glanders, when become con- 

 stitutional, is strongly characterised by the unthrifty appearance of the 

 coat. Chronic cough, grease, farcy, and founder, are accompanied by 

 hide-bound ; and diet too sparing, and not adequate to the work exacted, 

 is an unfailing source of it. If the cause be removed, the effect will 

 cease. 



Should the cause be obscure, as it frequently is — should the horse wear an 

 unthrifty coat, and his hide cling to his ribs, without any apparent disease, 

 we shall be warranted in tracing it to sympathy with the actual, although 

 not demonstrable suspension of some important secretion, and, we repeat, 



