Air. 197 



and manage our s(ables u\yon tlie most absurd and preposterous prin- 

 ciples ; 3 ieldini^ the rej^ulation of their temperature, upon which the 

 health of the animal must inevitably so much depend, to illiterate 

 Grooms and Stable-men, vvhos-e prejudices, conceit and ignorance, 

 generally g'o hand in hand. Yet nothin^^ is more common every 

 day, than to hear men of liberal education appealing- to people of 

 the above description, not only on this particular, baton other im- 

 portant subjects equally connected with the well-being" of this noble 

 and useful animal ; men who would consider their understandings 

 offended, were they supposed weak enough to seek advice from 

 such a source, on any other the most common subject in the world. 



The truth is, that to the defect in properly regulating" the tempe- 

 rature of our stables, may be fairly attributed the greater, number of 

 fatal diseases, but especially Pleurisies and Inflammations of the 

 Lungs, which prevail so much amongst Horses during- our winters 

 and spring's. Nor will this be any matter of surprize if we take 

 into account the sudden and prodigious alteration of temperature to 

 which Horses are frequently exposed during* the above periods. For 

 I have frequently found, on measuring the heat of low and confined 

 stables in winter, that the thermometer would stand as high as 60, 

 at a time when the external atmosphere was t\yo degrees below the 

 freezing' point. Here tiien is the prodigious difference of oO degrees 

 of heat, ascertained by the only invariable standard, (which cannot like 

 our feelings be liable to deceive us,) and yet this amazing* change. 

 Horses are not only suddenly called upon to endure, but are expected 

 to suffer with impunity. 



Nor is this all, for it most coinmonly happens that whilst standing 

 in these hot stables, they are covered with woollen cIonthinoT. V'btf-K 



