He-Goats and Coat-Carriages. 253 



He-Goats tvit/> Horses. 



Although unpleasant to the olfactory organs, this 

 odour is by no means unhealthy, but rather the reverse 

 with animals, especially with horses, on which it is 

 supposed to act as a preventive against the staggers. For 

 this reason he-goats are mostly kept by innkeepers and 

 persons having large stables. I am well aware that some 

 people regard this supposed connection between the 

 hircine odour and the health of horses as ridiculous, and 

 based simply on superstition ; but for my part I cannot 

 believe that an opinion which has been in favour for 

 centuries with stock-owners, not only in England and the 

 continent of Europe, but in lands still further distant, 

 China and Japan, for instance, can after all have no 

 foundation in fact. 



Numerous are the cases that have been cited to me at 

 various times of the beneficial effect of keeping a he-goat 

 amongst horses, but the following being specially fixed 

 upon my memory I give it here : My informant was a 

 large contractor who, having lost annually several horses 

 by the staggers, was one day advised to try keeping a 

 " billy." He had always, he told me, scouted the idea 

 that the smell of this animal could in any way influence 

 the health of a horse, but in despair determined to give 

 it a trial, and bought one. It turned out that for three 

 or four years whilst the goat lived not a single death from 

 the old enemy occurred, and thinking he had obliterated 

 the disease once and for all from the premises and was 

 safe for the future, he did not at once replace the animal. 

 To his dismay, however, in less than six months another 

 death occurred in his stables from the same disorder. He 

 then lost no time in procuring a fresh goat, and no more 

 horses died from this disease. 



Another case almost identical with this is recorded by 

 Mr. Marshall in his work on the " Rural Economy of 



