FOOD AND GENERAL TREATMENT. 431 



that tobacco will do this, having used it repeatedly with the 

 greatest success ; for which reason tobacco is what we recom- 

 mend in all such cases. 



Lime is a highly-esteemed disinfectant when employed to 

 nullify the noxious effluvia arising from the decomposition 

 of vegetable matter; for instance, in the vicinity of sewers, 

 stagnant pools, piles of manure, and heaps of rotting garbage. 

 Chloride of lime, or lime itself, placed in these localities will 

 disinfect them to a very great extent. Hence, the exhala- 

 tions from a box or kettle of the chloride will be of great 

 value in neutralizing the odors and injurious gases in the 

 stable proceeding from rotting manure and the like causes; 

 but it does not appear to have any power to destroy or break 

 up disease. 



In a stable where any contagion is known to have lately 

 existed, tobacco may, perhaps, be regarded as the only real 

 safeguard; yet this remark must not be understood as pro- 

 nouncing against the use of either lime or sulphur in connec- 

 tion Avith it. They may be employed with benefit as medi- 

 cine, and probably as fumigators, also. Every part of the 

 stable near which the infection may possibly have been, should 

 be thoroughly washed with a decoction of tobacco. A dense 

 smoke of the same should form the fumigation, and tobacco- 

 feaves— the finer the better — should be kept for a time in all 

 the mangers of that- stable. 



Other disinfectants, such as copperas, chloroform, assafetida, 

 etc., have had their advocates; but the three which we have^ 

 named are the principal agents of this character, and the 

 others are not^to be used, except in special cases. 



EXERCISE. 



If it be at all possible, horses should have regular, daily 

 exercise in some way. The farm-horse generally has enough 

 of this in the roufine of daily toil. It is only the horse that 

 is kept for pleasure which spends most of his time in the stable. 

 Such an animal has great need of set periods, at regular and 

 frequent intervals, for exercise; otherwise his legs are apt to 



