Air. 201 



susceptibility oif (the putrefactive fermentation in the materials of 

 M'hich httcr is composed, and was, moreover, aware that this chemi- 

 cal change must be materially expedited by the heat of the stable, 

 as well as by the admixture of (he nrine and foeces of the Horse 

 (which are peculiarly fitted for giving^ the first impulse to the process) 

 3et, was I never able to satisfy my mind completely, respecting- the 

 sudden and immense generation of Volatile Alkali in stables. But, 

 in a conversation which I fortunately had with Dr. Egan of Dublin, 

 about eight years ago, when he did me the honor to attend my an- 

 nual course of Lectures to the Dublin Society, he very obligingly 

 removed all the difficulty which I had encountered upon this subject^ 

 by informing me that the urine of the Horse begins to generate Vola- 

 tile Alkali in prodigious quantities very soon after it is voided. Dr, 

 Egan was led to suspect this to be the case, by the pungent smell 

 which was exhaled by Horse's urine in a few hours after it was voided, 

 which he had set aside for examination with other views, and on ap- 

 plying the usual tests for discovering Volatile Alkali, its presence in 

 very large quantity was satisfactorily detected. 



And although any testimony of mine can add but little to the well- 

 merited reputation of this ingenious Chemist and Medical Philoso- 

 pher ; yet feeling that it would be an act of injustice to Dr. Egan, 

 Ykiej:e 1 to withhold from him the credit of this discovery, it gives me 

 the greatest pleasure to express in this public manner the great obliga- 

 gation I feel myself under to him for the communication of this cu- 

 rious invaluable fact. For curious it certainly must be esteemed in 

 the eye of the Chemical Philosopher, invaluable to the Veteri- 

 nary Surgeon, by convincing him more than ever of the necessity 

 of the most scrupulous attention to the thorough ventilation of etables^ 



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