PROPHYLACTIC TREATMENT. 325 



■of their side- walls, through which the heated and impure air might 

 find escape; as well as apertures in the lowermost possible situ- 

 ations through which fresh (pure) air might find ingress to replace 

 what had escaped above. Sound, however, as Coleman's theory 

 was upon general principles, it was not found in all situations to 

 hold good in practice ; for wherever a current of air or a strong 

 wind sets against stables, it will be found that even through the 

 ujyper holes of that side air will rush in, while through the lower of 

 the opposite side of the stable rarefied air will escape. Still, how- 

 ever, Coleman's general reasoning was sound and applicable. And 

 as a proof of it, we know that he, in numerous instances, succeeded 

 in rendering stables wholesome which had been notoriously the 

 reverse ; the consequence of which was the banishment, from such 

 abodes, of diseases of the most malignant and fatal description, in 

 particular of farcy and glanders. 



That such were the facts, such the results, can be sufficiently 

 proved by the veterinary annals of the army and ordnance depart- 

 ments. The only question for us, as professional men, to consider 

 is, whether Coleman's premises and deductions in regard to the 

 said facts were sound — whether, as he so confidently asserted, the 

 evil wholly arose from what he called " a poisoned atmosphere," 

 i. e. an atmosphere in which a poison had been " bred," or whether 

 the atmosphere had not become " poisoned" through contagion ? 

 Coleman's assumption that every horse, at the time he became an 

 inhabitant of a stable of this description, was sound in constitution — 

 free from the seeds of disease — could not be proved ; and since 

 he did not believe that contagion could operate save through actval 

 contact, he took little or no heed of any such influence in forming 

 his theory of the effects of ventilation; but unhesitatingly ascribed 

 all, as has been already stated, to the poison or miasm generated 

 in the stable. Without any desire to detract from the benefits 

 derived from ventilation, we cannot shut our own eyes to the good 

 that has evidently resulted from a superior stable regimen, from 

 the superior management altogether of horses in a state of domes- 

 tication; neither can we pass by without remark the great atten- 

 tion that has all along been paid to the immediate separation and 

 removal of the tainted subject from his sound companions : the 



