All round the muzzle, and especially about the nostrils and lips, there are long fine hairs, scattered wide apart, and standing perpendicular to the skin. These are feelers. They perform the same functions as the whiskers of the cat. Their roots are endowed with peculiar sensibility. They warn the horse of the vicinity of objects to which he must attend. There are several grouped together below and above the eyes, which give these delicate organs notice of approaching insects or matters that might enter them and do mischief. The slightest touch on the extremity of these hairs is instantly felt by the horse. They detect even the agitation of the air.

It is usual with grooms to cut all these hairs away as vulgar excrescences. They can give no reason for doing so. They see these hairs on all horses that are not well groomed, and perhaps they are accustomed to associate them with general want of grooming. They are so fine and so few in number, that they can not be seen from a little distance, and surely they can not be regarded as incompatible with beauty, even though they were more conspicuous.

The operation ought to be forbidden; few horses suffer it without some resistance, and many have to be restrained by the twitch. The pain is not great, but it seems to be sufficiently annoying.

The long hair which grows upon the throat channel and neck of horses that have been much exposed to cold, is partly pulled out and partly shortened. It has been supposed that the removal of the hair from about the throat renders the horse very liable to catch cold after it, and to have a cough. It is sometimes shortened by clipping, but oftener by singeing it, and singeing is blamed more than clipping. The operation certainly does not improve the appearance of heavy draught-horses; it is never required by blood horses, or others that are well groomed and comfortably stabled; and saddle, gig, or post-horses, to whom the operation might be a a improvement, are so seldom in the charge of men who can perform it properly, that in general it is better to leave it undone.