There are other agents which may co-operate with these, when they do not produce their ordinary effects. Boiled barley, boiled or raw linseed, raw carrots, and boiled turnips, are among the articles of food which influence the skin. They polish and lay the hair, and they soften the skin. These need not be given constantly. It is sufficient to give one or more of them two or three times in the week. A few raw carrots during the day, and perhaps a little barley at night, will answer the purpose, and occasionally these may give place to turnips and linseed.

Drugs are sometimes given, and when not abused, they are useful. Physic is serviceable only when the skin is too rigid, and the dung pale, or when there is reason to suspect worms. When the horse does not eat up his grain, a mild dose of physic may be given, and when that sets, it may be followed by a few cordials, one being given every second or third day. Cordials are rarely required in warm weather [indeed they are frequently highly injurious, and should only be administered for debility]. Physic alone in general succeeds. When there is no apparent need either for physic or cordials, the coat not improving so much nor so rapidly as it should do, the best remedy is a powder composed of antimony, nitre, and sulphur. Take black antimony, eight ounces; flour of sulphur, four ounces; and finely-powdered nitre, four ounces.

Mix these well together; divide the whole into sixteen doses, and give one every night in the last feed. If the weather be moderately warm and dry, or the horse not much exposed, he may, on every second night, have two doses, or he may have one at morning, and another at night - that is, two every day. At the end of ten or twelve days, the coat ought to be much improved, and by the time all the doses have been given, the antimony will be glittering on the skin. If the horse have to stand any time out of doors during cold weather these powders must not be given. They render him very sensitive of vicissitudes of temperature; and they are apt to make him sweat a little in the stable; but this is a matter of little consequence. The night-sweats will disappear as the horse gets into condition.

Besides the physic, the cordials, and the diaphoretic powder, some grooms are in the habit of giving other things. It is a common practice to force whole eggs raw down the throat. The shell is starred, so that it may be crushed as the norse swallows the egg; but sometimes this is not done sufficiently, the egg sticks in the gullet, and chokes the horse. He dies in two or three minutes, if he do not obtain immediate assistance. I do not believe that eggs, either raw or boiled, have any or much influence on the coat. If it be certain that they have, they can be given in the food without danger. Break them into dry bran, and give that after fasting. Linseed oil is not a bad thing. If the owner fancies it, he may give a quart bottle, instead of the ordinary physic-ball It is most useful when the skin is rigid, sticking to the ribs. Of tobacco, mercury, and several mineral preparations, which are occasionally given to fine the coat, I can give no account. I have had no experience of them. The means I have already recommended seldom fail, and 1 have never tried any others. [Mercury and most mineral preparations, we know, from sad experience, are extremely injurious.

We have had several horses nearly ruined by them; and as other medicines are equally effective, and less dangerous, minerals should be rarely prescribed.]

Drugs are often employed to give a fine coat when there is no need for them. When warmth, good grooming, and good food, or particular kinds of food, will produce the desired effect, drugs should not be used. A lazy man is always fond of those expedients which save his labor. He is apt to make the warmth and drugs do that which should be done with the brush. Instead of dressing the horse frequently and thoroughly, he increases the warmth of the stable and the weight of the clothing, till the horse is almost fevered; and he gives drugs, so many and so often, that he renders he constitution exceedingly delicate. Such means are not always injurious; but in many cases they are made to do too much. They are very serviceable in their proper place; they are not to do that which should be done by grooming.

The gloss of a fine coat is easily destroyed, particularly that gloss which is given by warmth and antimony. Exposure to cold, frequent ablutions, extraordinary exertion, and everything that checks the insensible perspiration, or interferes with the daily dressing, produce a change upon the hair. In a single day it will become dull, hard, dead-like, and staring. Gentle exercise to heat the skin, and hard rubbing with the brush, will generally restore the lost polish and smoothness of the hair; and sometimes one of the diaphoretic powders may be given before and after the day of sweating, which must be very gentle.

All slow-working horses, and those that have to bear much exposure to the weather, and especially those that have to stand out of doors, or in cold stables, should not have a short coat; good grooming and food will make it glossy; a single rug will make it lie; but drugs, and a high degree of warmth, are forbidden. They render the horse unfit for cold stables, and unfit to suffer, without injury, that exposure which his work demands.