It improves the horse's appearance, it renders the coat short, fine, glossy, and smooth. The coat of a horse in blooming condition is always a little oily. The hair rejects water. The anointing matter which confers this property is secreted by the skin, and the secretion seems to be much influenced by good grooming. Slow-working horses often have skins which a fox-hunter would admire, although they may be receiving very little care from the groom. But the food of these horses has a good deal to do with the skin, and their work is not of that kind which impairs the beauty of a fine glossy coat. They drink much water, and they get warm boiled food every night. They do not often perspire a great deal, but they always perspire a little. Fast-working horses have hard food, a limited allowance of water; and every day, or every other day, they are drenched in perspiration, which forbids constant perspiration, and which carries off, or washes away the oily matter. Hence, unless a horse that is often and severely heated, be well groomed, have his skin stimulated, and his hair polished by the brush, he will never look well. His coat has a dead, dim appearance, a dry, soft feel.

To the hand the hair feels like a coarse, dead fur; the most beautiful coat often assumes this state in one or two days. Some horses always look ill, and no grooming will make them look well; but all may be improved, or rendered tolerably decent, except at moulting time. Dressing is not the only means by which the coat is beautified. There are other processes, of which I shall speak presently.

Among stablemen, dressing is performed only for the sake of the horse's personal appearance. They are not aware that it has any influence upon health, and therefore they generally neglect the skin of a horse that is not at work. In the open fields, the skin is not loaded with the dust and perspiration which it contracts in the stable, or loose box; and all the cleaning it obtains, or needs, is performed by the rain, and by the friction it receives when the horse rolls upon the ground; or rubs himself against a tree. He comes home with a very ugly and a very dirty coat, but the skin is cleaner than if the horse had been all the time in a stable. I think I have observed that colts who have never been stabled, preserve a cleaner skin at grass than those that have been long accustomed to a daily dressing. It would be foolish to attempt any explanation of this before it is ascertained to be true. I am not sure of it. But it is very well known that an old horse is very apt to become mangy and lousy if kept long in the stable without grooming. I do not know what effect the friction of a daily dressing may have upon the general health. Its beneficial influence upon the human body is acknowledged by all medical men, and, especially in warm countries, it is duly appreciated.

That friction promotes the secretions of the horse's skin, is evident from the permanent gloss which it imparts to the hair; that a disordered state of the skin produces a disordered state of the stomach, the bowels, and the lungs, can hardly be denied, since it is universally admitted that a particular state of these latter organs is constantly followed by derangement of the former. If diseases in the stomach or bowels can produce diseases in the skin, surely diseases in the skin may produce diseases in the stomach.

Want of Dressing, whether it affect the general health or not, produces lice and mange. Mange may arise from causes independent of a neglected skin, but it very rarely visits a "well-groomed horse. Bad food or starvation has something to do in the production of lice; but the want of dressing has quite as much, or more. It is the business of the stableman to prevent mange, so far as prevention is possible. Its treatment belongs to the veterinarian, and need not be here described. But it is the groom's duty both to prevent and to cure lousiness.

Lice may accumulate in great numbers before they are dis covered. Sometimes the are diffused over all the skin : at other times they are confined to the mane, the tail, and parts adjacent. The horse is frequently rubbing himself, and often the hair falls out in large patches. There are many lotions, powders, and ointments, for destroying lice. Ointments are not easily applied, and they are seldom effective; but when the vermin are confined to a little space, the mercurial ointment rubbed well into the skin, is better than any other oily application. [This is a dangerous remedy, and after being applied, the horse's head should be so confined that he can not touch the anointed parts with his tongue or lips, or be placed within reach of any other animal, otherwise there is danger of their getting the mercurial ointment into the mouth, and thus cause death. We have known valuable animals occasionally lost in this way. Refuse oil or lard, rubbed on a lousy beast of any kind, immediately destroys the vermin, and there is no danger to be apprehended from this application. It merely occasions the hair being shed earlier in the spring, and requires a little extra attention in housing such animals as have been affected.] A decoction of tobacco is an effectual remedy.

A pint of boiling water is poured upon an ounce of twist or shag tobacco, and, when cold, the liquor is applied with a sponge, so as to wet the hair to the root. A solution of corrosive sublimate, in the proportion of one drachm to a pint of water, is also a very good remedy, but not to be employed when much of the skin is raw. [This is likewise a dangerous remedy.] When the lice are very numerous, spread over great part of the body, it is a good plan to use both the decoction and the solution. One half of the body may be dressed with the tobacco liquor, and the other half with the solution of sublimate. Vinegar, mixed with three times its bulk of water, is a good application, and not so dangerous as the other. It is more irritating, but the irritation soon subsides and does not sicken the horse; tobacco often will. Next day the skin should be examined, and wherever there is any sign of living vermin, another application should be made. Two days afterward the horse, should be washed with soapy water, warm, and applied with a brush that will reach the skin without irritating it.

In many cases, none of these remedies are necessary. It is sufficient to wash the horse all over with soapy water. Black soap is better than any other. It need not, and should not be rubbed upon the skin. It may be beat into the water till it forms a strong lather, and that should be applied with a brush and washed off with clean warm water. Care must be taken that the horse do not catch cold. He should be thoroughly washed, but dried as quickly as possible, and get a walk afterward if the weather be favorable.

The clothes should be dipped into boiling water, and the inside of the saddle wet with the sublimate lotion. The litter should all be turned out, and burned, or buried where swine, dogs, or poultry, will not get among it. If it can not be easily removed without scattering it across the stable or yard, a solution of quick-lime may be dashed over it, before it is taken from the stall.