No. 4.] STABLE MANAGEMENT. 179 



Effects of an Impure Supply of Water. 



We are in almost absolute ignorance as to the effects of 

 an impure supply of water on the health of animals ; the 

 general impression, that any water is good enough for 

 horses and cattle to drink, has perhaps to account for this 

 late of affairs; there can, however, he no doubt that, as 

 precise investigations proceed and greater care is shown in 

 the inquiry into and accuracy of examination of the causes 

 operating in producing disease amongst animals, impure 

 water will have its legitimate share allotted to it. Of one 

 thing I am convinced, that, however inert impure water 

 may have been to animals in a wild state, the more we sub- 

 ject them to an artificial existence, as the result of civiliza- 

 tion, the more we remove from them the immunity they 

 may have possessed against common causes of disease, and 

 the greater the liability there is for causes which originally 

 may never have existed to become developed. 



What are the substances in water which are liable, then, 

 to provoke disease ? We have animal organic matter, vege- 

 table organic matter, particularly that of marshes, the 

 germs of specific diseases and some of the salts. 



Commencing with the latter first, we know the result on 

 the digestive organs of horses receiving a large quantity of 

 lime in their water. Hard water undoubtedly produces a 

 derangement of the intestinal canal, and sympathetically of 

 the skin ; the harsh, staring coat of horses receiving hard 

 water rapidly disappears when a softer water is supplied. 

 The amount of hardness in water which will produce this 

 derangement of the intestinal canal has not been accurately 

 determined ; but from eight to ten grains of lime per gallon 

 has, in many cases, been found injurious. 



Water impregnated with sulphurous acid gives rise in 

 cattle to a number of serious symptoms and to diseases of 

 the bones. Water highly charged with calcium carbonate and 

 sulphate has been found to give rise to exostoses in horses, 

 and on pure water being substituted the disease ceased. 



An excess of sulphate of lime in the well water is sup- 

 posed to have caused an epizootic amongst the horses ot a 

 French regiment of cavalry. On changing the water supply 

 the disease ceased. 



