Ai7\ 199 



are e3s<»ntial to life and health; to say nothing of other prejudicial 

 Cifects I'c ji.ins: to the greneral system from such treatment? For 

 though the resources of nature in warding off disease under such 

 circumstances^ are in many cases incalculable, yet are they not inter- 

 minable. And therefore >ve frequently find Horses that have been 

 exposed to such severe and sudden vicissitudes, attacked with Inflam- 

 mations of the Lungs and Pleura, Sore Throats, Locked Jaw, and 

 other fatal diseases. 



Bat instead of wondering (as people are apt to do) that Horses 

 should be liable to be attacked with sHch kinds of complaints, our sur- 

 prize (provided we reasoned upon just and rational principles) 

 ougiit rather to be excited at the astonishing powers which the bene- 

 volent Author of Nature has bestowed upon these animals in order 

 to preserve their bodies in health, in spite of the violence which the 

 ajbitrariness of custom, and the combined effects of ignorance and 

 superstition, are perpetually offering to their frames. Nor are the 

 ill effects of hot air confined to the production of such diseases as 

 have been glanced at, for the air of stables is almost always foul ia 

 .proportion to its heat; and consequently it will be perpetually ope- 

 rating in the production of diseases which do not depend solely upon 

 the affair of temperature. The mischief therefore does not end here, 

 Jor along with this hot air so deficient in the vital principle, the ani.- 

 mal necessarily enhales also a great quantity of Ammonia or VolaT 

 tile Alkali which is generated largely by the putrefactive fermenta- 

 tion of the litter. 



And that this is really the fact, and not merely an hypothetical no- 

 tion of mine, may be satisfactorily proved by recollecting the ex- 

 h"eme pungency of the atmosphere in stables at the time of cleaning-- 



