FAULTS INSEPARABLE FROM STABLES. 249 



ing to which the floors of most stables are laid down. The pavement 

 of the stalls is composed of small, hard bricks, known as " Dutch Clink- 

 ers. " Bricks, however nicely they may be placed, cannot form an abso- 

 lutely smooth or even surface. They must present spaces in which fluid 

 will be retained ; and, being porous, bricks cannot prevent effluvia from 

 rising through their substances, or cannot hinder liquid from percolating 

 into the soil on which they rest. The urine acquires acrimony as it 

 corrupts beneath the pavement, which makes a renewal of the flooring 

 of a stall an efficient reason for ordering the inhabitants of a large build- 

 ing to be removed, since the pavement will have to be disturbed. 



To demonstrate that the urine of the horse undergoes a speedy change 

 when exposed to the action of the atmosphere : the fresh fluid will pro- 

 duce no change in litmus paper ; but after a few minutes' exposure, the 

 liquid changes the blue dye to a red color, having, in the brief interval, 

 become acid, and in that condition it yields strong fumes of ammoniacal 

 gas. It is the presence of this gas that chiefly occasions that peculiar 

 pungency which is characteristic of the stable. 



To promote such an alteration, and to procure from the excretion the 

 greatest possible amount of noxious effluvia, the liquid is made to gently 

 flow over an open, a rough, an uneven, and a slanting surface ; thus sub- 

 jecting the greatest possible quantity to the direct action of the atmos- 

 phere. Should not the whole change be thereby accomplished, the fluid 

 slowly drains into an open gutter, which slopes so gradually that its 

 contents frequently refuse to move. Had the architect who originally 

 laid down the plan of a modern stable designed to make the interior 

 poisonous, it would have been difficult, having no more active agent at 

 command, for him to have conceived means better calculated to fulfill 

 his object. 



The groom, to warm the place, stops up every crevice through which 

 the vapor could escape, or pure air could find admission. Many stable- 

 men, also, exclude the light, under a groundless notion that horses thrive 

 best when in the dark. Darkness does not necessarily lead to sleep — 

 it simply disables one of the senses ; thereby animal hfe is deprived of a 

 harmless enjoyment, while at the same time the exclusion of light causes 

 the eye to shrink from the glare of day ; while the continuance of the 

 evil is likely to induce blindness. Hours of weariness, passed in a con- 

 fined space, and within a tainted atmosphere, are strange means when 

 employed to promote extraordinary thrift. More especially, when we 

 consider that the inclination of the floor forbids rest to the feet, while 

 the exclusion of light incapacitates all visual recreation. 



Horses, not having a knowledge of chemistry, cannot, of themselves, 

 purify the air ; but certain animals, instructed by their instincts, do all 



