The Nervous System. 105 



The hair grows according to the climate, season, food, 

 etc., and is shed at certain seasons of the year; in poultry 

 the condition is known as "moulting," the feathers in 

 fowl representing the hairs of animals. The character 

 and quality of the hair varies with the breeding, e. g., 

 in Galloway and Angus cattle. Showmen of horses, 

 cattle and sheep blanket their charges to improve the 

 condition of the skin and hair; poultrymen confine their 

 birds to the shady places to avoid " brassiness of the 

 plumage ' ' due to the sun' s rays. The hair preserves 

 the skin from wet, cold and the direct action of the 

 sun's rays. Intimately related to the hair are those 

 structures known as the horns of cattle and sheep, the 

 chestnuts of horses and asses, and the coverings of the 

 foot, termed hoofs in the horse, ass and mule, and claws 

 in sheep, swine, cattle, etc. 



The horns vary in size and shape according to the breed 

 and sex, they grow from the matrix at their base; they 

 are more or less hollowed out, the frontal sinuses being 

 continued into them. 



The Chestnuts. These bare horny structures are said 

 by some people to represent an evolutionary stage 

 through which the horse has gone, they are found on 

 the inside of the fore arm and on the upper part of the 

 inner face of the hind cannons. 



The Ergots in horses are found growing from the skin 

 of the fetlock and correspond to the hard sole of animals 

 that walk on their soles (Man, dog, cat). In cattle 

 they are undeveloped digits. Chestnuts and ergots are 

 better developed in the underbred horse than in the 

 well-bred animal. 



