Bronchitis. 183 



greatly according as the air is already more or less saturated with 

 water. As the air in the stalls between decks is always saturated 

 with water vapor, we may take the very lowest estimate for each 

 animal, namely, 60 ounces in 24 hours, which for a cargo of 200 

 head would amount to over 93 gallons. And this is in addition 

 to the exhalations from the skin and the bowel and kidney excre- 

 tions. The air between decks is therefore constantly saturated 

 with moisture which condenses and runs down in streams on 

 every solid object. Among the ill effects of this saturation may 

 be noted : ' ' 



' ' First. The saturation of the air with water vapor increases 

 the exhalation of carbon dioxide from the lungs. This effect on 

 the excretion of carbonic acid is usually so great as to counter- 

 balance the tendency of warm air to reduce the production of this 

 acid. This saturation, therefore, with water increases the danger 

 of suffocation by the accumulation of the irrespirable carbon di- 

 oxide in the ship, unless the air is being constantly removed. " 



"Second. The excess of moisture in the warm atmosphere 

 hastens the decomposition of the organic matter derived from the 

 lungs, skin, and manure. Sir Alexander Armstrong, head of the 

 medical department of the British Navy, says : " There can be no 

 more fertile source of disease among seamen, or, indeed, other 

 persons, than the constant inhalation of a moist atmosphere, 

 whether sleeping or waking ; but particularly is this influence in- 

 jurious wlien the moisture exists between a ship's decks, where it 

 may be at the same time more or less impure, and hot or cold, 

 according to circumstances." It has become an aphorism with 

 sanitarians that " a damp ship is an unhealthy ship," and many 

 instances are adduced in which a sufficient renewal of the air be- 

 tween decks, with or without stoves to dry it, has transformed a 

 naval pest-house into a salubrious vessel." 



" All such considerations must emphasize the demand for such 

 a constant renewal of air between decks on steamers carrying 

 cattle as shall serve to obviate all those conditions of ill-health, 

 with congestion and inflammation of the lungs, as have proved in 

 the past a serious drawback to our foreign cattle-trade. To ac- 

 complish this and at once remove from between decks the excess 

 of carbon dioxide, of decomposing organic matter, and of humidity, 

 and to furnish air approaching in purity and dryness that of the 



