IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL HORSES. 719 
placed patients in baths containing belladonna, digitalis, 
and rhubarb, and found no dilatation of the pupil to result 
from the first-named agent, nor any alteration of the heart’s 
action from the second, and the colouring matter of the 
third was not detected in the urine. 
In a subsequent paper M. Parisot further stated that he 
had by experiment ascertained, that water is only absorbed 
into the body at the palms of the hands and soles of the 
feet. The reason for this, he says, is obvious; these parts 
are unprovided with sebaceous follicles, the secretion from 
which forms a protecting varnish for the rest of the skin. 
Chloroform, alcohol, and ether dissolve the sebaceous 
matter more or less completely, and hence substances dis¬ 
solved in them may penetrate to the derma. 
Extracts from British .and Foreign Journals. 
THE IMPROVEMENT OE AGRICULTURAL HORSES SUITED 
TO THE WEST OE ENGLAND. 
Bv Professor Brow'n, M.R.C.Y.S. 
(Contin uedfrom jp. 697.) 
II. Breeds adapted to different Localities. 
In applying horse-power to the cultivation of the soil and 
the various kinds of agricultural work, we assume that force 
in reserve is indispensable, or at least economical. No error 
can be more disastrous in its results than the employment of 
animals possessing a muscular development or weight of body 
inadequate to the performance of the amount or the kind of 
w’ork for which they are required. Muscular power may act 
independently of weight; and this, on the other hand, may, 
to a great extent, supersede the necessity for great muscular 
force. In all kinds of draught work the weight of the body 
largely contributes to the animaEs power, the muscles being 
principally occupied in pushing the body forward by the aid 
of the hind extremities, and counteracting the tendency to 
fall by advancing the fore limbs as pillars of support: the 
