A SIMPLE EXPERIMExNT IN PROOF 



13 



very simple fashion. Remove a horse from a cold place to 

 one much warmer, and, invariably, the result will be he will 

 cough ; a sufficient proof of the injury he receives. Reverse 

 the process; take him from a warm to a cool stable and it 

 is not so. 



The result of this easy experiment may seem paradoxical ; 

 at variance vvith reason, if you will. Nevertheless it is true ; 

 and, it may be admitted, is well worthy the consideration of 

 every owner or manager of a stable. Yet for one object — 

 looks — the simple lesson it teaches is wholly disregarded. 

 Servants will willingly stake their own reputation, and their 

 employer's interest, on what is here shown to be a fallacy. 



The temptation to do so, is comprehensible enough. The 

 beautiful effect produced by a hot stable on the coats of its 

 inmates, ensures unbounded admiration and lavish praise. 

 But few, very few, know the many diseases of which it is 

 the lamentable cause. In such a state, it may fairly be 

 said, the horse is constantly shedding his coat, and as a 

 necessary result becomes weak and enervated ; in fact in 

 a state of disease rather than of health. 



There is reason in all things. No one should, to escape 

 one extreme, blindly rush into another, and in order to 

 avoid a stable too hot, have one too cold. But when the 

 temperature is chilly, and your horses uncomfortably cold, 

 supply additional clothing rather than close windows and 

 air-holes. The latter expedient may improve their looks, but 

 it is a poor object gained at the cost of appetite, condition, 

 nay, more, not unoften the very animals themselves. 



What must men of science, our veterinary surgeons, for 

 example, and other reasonable persons, think on entering the 

 stables of those adhering with such pertinacity to an exploded 

 theory, the effete doctrine of a worn-out age .'' Yet \\hatever 



