198 STABLES. 



heat given off by decomposing urine and dung, and by noxious 

 exhalations from the lungs and skin of the animals. Besides, 

 the warmer the stable, especially when the floor is kept in 

 a wet condition, the damper and consequently the more 

 unhealthy will be its atmosphere. Heat directly promotes the 

 contamination of the air of a stable, by encouraging the 

 volatilisation of ammonia and ammonium carbonate. Damp 

 and heat combined, exert a very favourable influence on the 

 cultivation of disease germs. In hot damp stables, contagious 

 pleuro-pneumonia is often a resident ; the microbes of 

 influenza and other diseases find a favourable breeding 

 ground ; and ophthalmia, with the frequent result of cataract, 

 is common, from the constant irritation to the eyes caused by 

 the presence of ammonia in the air. Veterinary surgeons have 

 often observed that during outbreaks of influenza (pink-eye), 

 the disease is rarer and less severe in stables which have 

 waterproof floors, than in those the flooring of which soaks up 

 moisture, and then, under the influence of heat, continues to 

 distribute it in the form of vapour throughout the building. 

 Also, the substitution of waterproof floors for absorbent floors 

 has frequently proved to be a valuable safeguard against 

 disease in the stables. " Formerly in the French army the 

 mortality among the horses was enormous. Rossignol states 

 that previous to 1836 the mortality of the French cavalry 

 horses varied from 180 to 197 per 1,000 per annum. The 

 enlargement of the stables and the increased allowance of air 

 has reduced the loss in the present day to 24.2 per 1,000. In 

 the English cavalry and in English racing stables the same 

 facts are well known. The annual mortality of cavalry horses, 

 which was formerly great, is now (1895) reduced to 23.7 per 

 1,000 " (Notter and Firt/i). 



Experience also teaches us that if horses are protected from 

 draughts and damp, liberally fed, comfortably bedded down, 

 and clothed according to their requirements, they will thrive 



