96 ON CLIPPING THE HORSE, AND THE EFFECT 
exposed to be blighted by the nipping frosts of future experiment 
and observation, or else through them ripened by the sun of future 
research and investigation. 
They are these : — That the skin, exposed and bedewed by its 
own exhalations, affords a less barrier to the passage of electricity. 
I say less, for there is still that delicate tissue, the almost dry cu- 
ticle intervening ; but the body being, as it were, now no longer 
perfectly insulated, there is established a current and continued 
circuit of the electric fluid in and out at every part of it, the result 
of which, I infer, is self-evident — exhilaration of the sentient, and 
increased tone in the organic, systems. 
That clipping is, as expressed by the celebrated Nimrod, “ an 
outrage on Nature,” is to me like the morsel which, at some time 
in our life, becomes our lot, “ bitter to swallow and hard of diges- 
tion.” That we inflict one great outrage on Nature when we sub- 
ject the horse to domestication, I will freely admit; but any thing 
that we can do in amelioration of the “ first offence,” and which we 
find to be attended with decided advantage to the animal, cannot 
surely be viewed as another outrage. 
That an animal with a long coat, kept in a July stable in the 
middle of winter, is capable of undergoing the same degree of long 
and repeated exertion with one that has been clipped, or the hair 
of which has been shortened by other means, appears to me an 
untenable doctrine. 
That clipped horses are less under the influence of those agents 
which induce disease, particularly of the respiratory organs, is an 
assertion that, I believe, will be found no less startling than cor- 
rect. That it has a marked and benign influence — nay, almost a 
specific effect, in the removal of chronic disease dependent upon 
functional derangement of the respiratory apparatus, as chronic 
catarrh — has, under my own observation, been sufficiently illus- 
trated to convince me, particularly in two cases, to which I will by 
and by refer. 
But, my dear Sir, I am ready to admit that, as far as condition 
goes, we can obtain the same end without clipping. And how is 
that accomplished 1 Why, in the language of Nimrod, “ by phy- 
sic, dry food, a July stable all the year round, and by assiduous 
grooming!” Assiduous grooming! Yes; lay that aside, and on 
the horse with a natural coat you labour in vain. Its effects, then, 
are acknowledged to be The production of a coat, short, fine, glossy, 
and smooth. But has it no other influence 1 Has not that highly 
electric body, the hair, been excited by friction 1 What, then, has 
become of the large quantity of electric fluid which has been pro- 
duced or set free 1 Has it served no useful purpose in the animal 
cconomv 1 Is it not probable that bv this the same end is obtained 
