THE HORSE HYGIENE AND SANITARY CONDITIONS. 649 



"The share which the skin has in the office of excretion, or 

 throwing off of impurities," Carpenter says, " has probably been 

 generally underrated." The skin and lungs throw off impurities 

 in the relation of eleven to seven. We have, under Ventilation, 

 spoken of the amount of impurities exhaled by the lungs, but 

 we now see that is not so large as the amount thrown off by 

 the skin. Now, any check of this excretion by the skin 

 throws additional labor on the lungs and kidneys, and is likely 

 to produce disorder of their functions. Dr. Fourcault experi- 

 mented on animals by suppression of perspiration. The evil 

 effects were found to be in proportion to the interference, until 

 by varnishing the animals, " cutaneous asphyxia " followed, and 

 the animals died. The blood can not be kept pure unless the 

 lungs, kidneys, and skin are each in condition to remove 

 promptly the wastes of the system. The great secret of pre- 

 serving health is in keeping a healthy action of the organs that 

 carry off the wastes of the system. 



Now, since the skin is provided with thousands of pores to 

 the square inch, and each pore has its office to perform, we can 

 see that keeping the skin clean, aids in this work so essential 

 to life and health. The most of matter thrown off by the skin 

 is water, but in every one thousand parts there is about ten 

 parts of solid matter, that is offensive to the organs. 



If horsemen can not be led to understand the philosophy of 

 cleanliness of the skin and stables as a means of health, it 

 is well that they can be influenced by the pride of appear- 

 ing well. 



The farmers, however, who have so little reason for display 

 in their work, on their farms, must realize the value of cleanli- 

 ness as a health and wealth promoter. 



The Stalls. For health and comfort, the box stall, 12x16 

 or larger, is superior, but this method of stabling takes more 

 room than the man of average means can afford. The stall 

 should then be not less than five feet wide. A dealer in horses 

 who had built several stables and handled thousands of horses, 

 gave it as his opinion, that a stall five feet nine inches in the 

 clear is better than wider, since he found horses would get cast 



