— 800 — 



Diet. — The different articles used by the liorse as food. 



Disinfectants. — French, Desinfednnts ; German, Faulnisswidrige 

 Sabstaazen. 



Disinfectants are such as remove tlie causes of infection, or any 

 injurious taint. To accomplish this eti'ect, disinfectants will have 

 to embrace a class of substances known by the name of antisep- 

 tics (agents which prevent animal or vegetable matter being de- 

 composed), and deodorizers (agents which destroy hurtful or bad 

 smells, when arising from decomposing material). 



(1.) Katukal Disinfectants. — Tlie atmospheric is the great 

 disinfectant. The soil has been found a valuable disinfectant, de- 

 composing animal matter with great quickness, and sending out 

 gasses which are without taint of any kind. Hence, the neces- 

 sity of deep burial of animals dying, or that have been killed, on 

 account of contagious diseases. 



Ventilation is entirely a mechanical plan of disinfecting, and 

 which it is in the power of every farmer in the land to more or 

 less perfect in all buildings containing horses, cattle, etc. In ven- 

 tilating, it is only necessar}^ to admit the purest air, and for this 

 purpose have the openings, or ventilators, placed at least eight to 

 ten feet from the ground, as it is well known that heavy vapors 

 are sometimes seen a few feet above the ground. Also, the ven- 

 tilation should come from the front or top of the building, as the 

 back of a stable is never so pure as its front. 



Water is the next great disinfectant employed b}" nature, 

 although moist bodies decay more rapidl}^ than dry. It is a dis- 

 infectant by the process of washing, wliich is mechanical. It is in 

 this way that each shower of rain becomes a natural disinfectant. 

 Light is another disinfectant, which seems to have been overlooked 

 by many, when their barns and stables were built. Without light 

 the rose would lose its color, and man and animals would lose and 

 never attain their vigor. 



In proof of the advantage of light in maintaining health, and 

 warding off disease, it is stated that in a barrack at St. Petersburg, 

 there was only one case of disease on the side laid open to the 

 light, to three on the dark side. 



Heat and cold are two agents highly useful as disinfectants. 

 Heat prevents fermentation and decay by drying and changing 



