It is a very common practice, because it is easy, to wash the legs; but none, save the best of stablemen, will be at the trouble of drying them; they are allowed to dry of themselves, and they become excessively cold. Evaporation commences; after a time a process is set up for producing heat sufficient to carry on evaporation, and to maintain the temperature of the skin. Before this process can be fully established, the water has all evaporated; then the heat accumulates; inflammation succeeds, and often runs so far as to produce mortification. When the inflammation is slight and transient, the skin is soon completely restored to health, and no one knows that it had ever been inflamed. When the process runs higher, there is a slight oozing from the skin, which constitutes what is termed grease, or a spot of grease; for when this disease is spread over a large surface, it is the result of repeated neglect. When the inflammation has been still more severe, mortification ensues; the horse is lame, the leg swollen, and in a day or two a crack is visible across the pastern, generally at that part where the motion is greatest.

This crack is sometimes a mere rupture of the tumefied skin, but very often it is produced by a dead portion of the skin having fallen out; what is called a core in the heel arises from the same cause; it differs from the crack only in being deeper and wider. The reason why cold produces such local injury of the skin covering the legs, and not of that covering any other part, is sufficiently plain. The legs, in proportion to their size, have a very extensive surface exposed to evapora tion, and the cold becomes more intense than it can ever be come on the body. To avoid these evils, the legs must either be dried after washing, or they must not be washed at all.

Among horses that have the fetlocks and the legs weft clothed with long and strong hair, it is not necessary to be so particular about drying the legs : the length and the thickness of the hair check evaporation. This process is not permitted to go on so rapidly; the air and the vapor are entangled among the hair, they can not get away, and of course can not carry off the heat so rapidly as from a naked heel. But for all this, it is possible to make the legs, even of those hairy-heeled horses, so cold as to produce inflammation. And when these horses have the legs trimmed bare, they are more liable to grease than the lighter horse of faster work. But the greatest number of patients with grease occur where the legs and heels are trimmed, washed, and never properly dried. There is no grease where there is good grooming, and not much where the legs are well covered with hair. It is true that fat or plethoric horses are very liable to cracks and moisture of the heels; but though it may not be easy, yet it is quite possible for a good groom to prevent grease even in these horses.

The proprietors of coaching-studs, a great many of them, find that the strappers have not time nor inclination to dry the legs after washing, and they prohibit the operation altogether. The men, nevertheless, are very fond of washing; it is easier to wash the legs clean than to brush them clean; and laziness is never without its plea. It is said that washing has nothing to do with grease or cracked heels, and that these diseases will occur where no washing is ever allowed. This is partly true, but the grease arises from the same cause; though the legs are not washed, yet they are not dried when the horses come in with them wet; hence the great number of cases in wet winters. It is also said that if the legs be wet when the horses come in, washing can not make them wetter: though the legs be wet yet they are warm, and if they must be washed, it should be with water warm as the skin.

I am not objecting to washing under all circumstances. It is a bad practice among naked-heeled horses, only when the men will not or can not make the legs dry. In a gentleman's stable the legs ought to be washed, but they ought also to be thoroughly dried before the horse is left. It is the evaporation, or the cold produced by evaporation, that does the mischief. In a cart-horse stable there is less chance of washing doing any harm; the long hair preventing the legs from becoming very cold; still, if grease, swelled legs, or cracked heels, occur often, either washing must be prohibited, or the legs must be dried after it, or the washing must be performed, at other times. In a farm-stable, the man, after working the horse all day, can not be expected to bestow an hour or two upon the legs at night; but he may forbear washing when he finds that grease is the consequence. He may brush off' the mud, when it is dry, and a wisp or a sponge will take away the loose water which the horse brings from his work.

If the legs become itchy and scurfy under this treatment, they may be washed once or twice a-week with soapy warm water, well applied, by means of a brush that will reach the skin; and this washing, particularly in cold weather, should be performed before the horse goes to his work, not after it. While he is in motion the legs will not become cold. The object of such a washing is not to clean the hair, but to clean the skin, which is apt to become foul and to itch from the mud adhering to it undisturbed. Upon drawing the hand over the pasterns and the legs, when in this state, numerous pimples are felt, some of which are raw. The horse is often stamping violently, and rubbing one leg against another. A solution of salt is a common and useful remedy against the itchiness, but it will not prevent a return.

I am aware that, in many coaching-stables, the men are still permitted to wash the horse's legs, without being compelled to dry them. This is no argument in favor of washing; for unless the legs be well clothed with hair, they will always tell the same tale. The horses that have recently entered these studs have grease, swelled legs, and cracked heels; those that have been a longer time in the service may be free from these, yet they show that they have had them over and over again. Their legs are round and fleshy; the skin thick, bald, seamed, callous. Nature has done much to inure the skin, but not before the horse has given a great deal of trouble, and perhaps not till he is permanently blemished.