THI com 
291 
laced as to give great strength to its texture, making it 
almost impenetrable by a knife in the living animal, and 
possessing extreme elasticity. It is this quality which 
adapts it so closely to the animal, whether he is plump and 
muscular, or reduced to skin and bone. In man, and most 
other animals, where from disease a great reduction of the 
muscular fibre has taken place, the skin becomes loose and 
shrivelled. It owes this great elasticity to the innumerable 
larger and smaller glands which penetrate its entire sub¬ 
stance, and furnish that unctuous matter, preserving the 
skin soft and pliable, and maintains that greasy moisture 
which its surface ever possesses, giving that beautiful sleek 
appearance to the hair. When the animal gets out of 
condition, and the skin is diseased, then the coat assumes a 
rough appearance, the hairs refuse to lie down, and it is 
then said that the coat stares. 
The skin at the bend of the knee and hock is bountifully 
supplied with this mucous matter to give them suppleness, 
and to preserve from friction those parts which are subjected 
to such constant and active movements. Sometimes this 
secretion exceeds the quantity necessary for the due action 
of the parts, and from want of attention and cleanliness 
becomes inspissated, and collects about those parts : and, 
if this hardness is permitted to remain, it will become a 
watery sore, which will terminate in lameness, stiffness, and 
pain in the joint when the animal bends it. When this is 
situated in the bend of the knee, it is termed mallenders, 
and when it is seated in front of the hock-joint, it is called 
sallenders, complaints which we have described at page 132 . 
If these complaints are attended to in their early stage, 
nothing more will be required than to cleanse the part from 
the scurf or scab which it produces by soaking it in hot 
water, and carefully washing it every day with a sponge and 
