140 CHAPTER 16. 



Disinfectants and deodorizers should not be allowed in stables. They 

 are false friends. They are to destroy noxious smells, but they do not 

 touch the source of the foul air, which is rising from inside, or outside, or 

 neighbourhood of the stable. 



278. Ventilation. 



Wherever a number of sick animals are collected under one roof, 

 especial and extraordinary care is needed to prevent the air becoming 

 contaminated. The fetid breath and unhealthy secretions and evacua- 

 tions of diseased animals require a very large supply of air, in addition 

 to the free use of disinfectants, to dilute and counteract their injurious 

 tendencies. 



On the other hand, whenever by imperfect ventilation or over-crowding, 

 by want of cleanliness or by bad drainage, these emanations are allowed 

 to accumulate, concentrate, and ferment, they operate most injuriously 

 not only on the sick animals, but also on healthy horses standing within 

 reach of the poisonous miasma. 



Whilst the Author expresses these views with great confidence as 

 regards horses in good health, it must be remembered that all animals, 

 when their systems are from any cause lowered, are prone to take on 

 disease of any kind, especially of that kind, whatever it may be, which is 

 prevalent at the time. 



279. Sick boxes. 



It is never desirable to congregate a number of sick animals under one 

 roof, for reasons which from previous explanations will be at once appa- 

 rent to the reader. 



The door of each box intended for a sick horse should open directly 

 into the air, and the party walls should be carried up completely to the 

 roof, so that no communication may exist between it and the next box. 



Sick boxes should be constructed with a view to thorough and easy 

 ventilation. They need more ventilation than might at first sight seem 

 to be required. The system of ventilation and construction recommended 

 for stables in Chapter 1 will be found to answer well. 



All boxes used by sick horses should be frequently whitewashed, and 

 every possible means should be adopted to keep them thoroughly clean. 

 But when a box has been occupied by a horse affected with any malignant 

 disease, it is not sufficient to. whitewash it. The walls ought to be tho- 

 roughly scraped, and then with the paving should be washed with chloride 

 of lime, after which ordinary whitewash may be used. 



If the paving is at all defective, and there is reason to think that there 

 has been any soakage of urine or other debris through it into the soil, it 

 should be taken up, and the soil covered with quick lime before it is re- 

 laid. The wood work, mangers, and racks should also be washed with 

 soap and water and repainted. Similar precautions should be taken 

 in regard to the buckets and other utensils. 



It is well known that, in the wards of hospitals which have been many 



