THOUGHTS ON HYDltOTHOllAX. 
15 
pace ; he became soon exhausted, could scarcely get along, 
stumbling frequently, and was in fact sadly under the mark. 
But to-day, having been clipped, lo and behold! he can go 
double the distance, and do double the work without fatigue; 
he is quick in his paces, light-hearted, and as elastic as a 
fawn. A marvellous change has taken place. What is it ? 
Echo answers, what! 1 believe the best of us do not fully 
know what are the effects produced by clipping. Have we 
imported into his system, suddenly, an increased amount of 
strength, an increased amount of muscle, more blood, or 
more nerve ? No, nothing of the kind. Then what have we 
done ? Here is a fine field for earnest scientific contempla¬ 
tion. We are apt to say, he was foggy and very gross; but 
surely twenty-four hours cannot have made so great a change 
in him. Admitting even that the absorbents and capillaries 
do work day and night, they cannot remove all the obstruct¬ 
ing interstitial deposits in this time. Now, since clipping 
can produce such marvellous effects in health, cannot it also 
be employed beneficially in disease ? And it is here that I 
wish to converge and concentrate the full force of these 
pages. Yes, I can attest to its benign influence, nay its 
specific effect in the removal of chronic diseases, dependent 
upon functional derangement of the respiratory organs, and 
especially so in acute and subacute diseases of those tissues. 
I believe its beneficial influence is attributable to the altered 
arrangement of the electric forces, developing increased 
vitality. That the great supporter of vital power is an im¬ 
material substance, closely resembling if not identical with 
that which has been termed electricity, will not be disputed; 
and when the horse is shorn of his hairy thick coat, the body 
is not insulated as it was before, and there is now established 
a free current or circuit of electrical fluid in and out of every 
part of it, creating an exhilarating excitement and an in¬ 
creased tone of the whole organic system. We find the sur¬ 
face of the skin is warmer in the clipped horse than it was 
before ; it is quite manifest to the hand. That this augmen¬ 
tation or increased supply of caloric is derived from the in¬ 
creased combustion of carbon is more than probable; also 
more oxygen is consumed, and it therefore necessarily follows 
that the removal of this outer barrier to the passage of elec¬ 
tricity into the body, which, in accordance with the inherent 
powers it possesses, is like a metallic chain extending from 
the conductor of an electric machine to the great reservoir of 
the electric fluid the earth, and therefore is, when excited, 
robbing the body of its greatest source of electricity. 
The pathological and practical deductions, then, are these: 
