STABLES 



79 



means implies the necessity for large cubic space in the stable, as any 

 quantity of air may be passed into and out of a space which is only suffi- 

 cient to allow the animal to stand in it. Major Fred. Smith remarks 

 that a very common error is made in considering that cubic space will 

 supplant ventilation, and consequently too much stress has been laid on the 

 importance of a large cubic capacity. In illustration of the error included 

 in this assumption he takes examples of two stables — one of 600 cubic feet, 

 and the other of 1500, a variation which is by no means uncommon. 

 Obviously a horse stabled in each of the two spaces would require the same 

 amount of air; and, in order that this might be supplied to each of the 

 animals, it would be necessary that the whole of the air in the former should 

 be changed a little over fifty-four times per hour, while in the 1500-cubic- 

 feet space the air need not be changed more often than a little over twenty- 

 one times per hour. The advantage, therefore, of a large cubic space is that 

 it does not necessitate so frequent a change of air. So far as the contami- 

 nation of the atmosphere included in either space is concerned, the value 

 of a large cubic capacity is comparatively trifling, being only the difference 

 of time which will be necessary for the contamination of the air it contains 

 in each case, and it is hardly necessary to observe that when the air is 

 equally contaminated the effect would be precisely the same on the animal 

 organism, whether the stable contains 600 or 6000 cubic feet. 



The following table is given to illustrate this point, and shows exactly, 

 at a glance, the result of the mixture of the products of respiration with the 

 air in cubic spaces of different dimensions : — 



