51 



them out of the warm stable does ! " I should, 

 on the other hand, say, if he had sense to under- 

 stand it, " You see what putting him into your icet 

 warm stables does." I quite approve of the 

 warmth ; but there is some difference between the 

 fine dry warmth of a well-aired, well- warmed 

 dining-room, and the damp heat of a washhouse, 

 with a copper boiling in it. I ridicule the idea 

 of those who talk of keeping horses in a natural 

 state of temperature: that is, natural, according 

 to their ideas of what is natural, by which they 

 mean cool, or rather cold. The fact is they 

 mistake what is natural to the horse : heat is 

 natural to him, not cold — that is, it was natural 

 to him in his original state, and we by use have 

 rendered it the same to him in his present one. 

 He will thrive under a tropical temperature : but 

 let it be remembered, a tropical heat is a dry one. 

 A cook will bear the heat of his kitchen, with 

 fires, and. hot hearths round him ; the damp) 

 heated air of a forcing-house would shortly kill 

 him, thou2:h his kitchen is the warmer berth : but 

 the air there, though hot, is dry. The warmth of 

 the stable is comfortable and healthful to the horse, 

 if it is only a proper warmth : it only becomes in- 

 jurious when the warmth is from a wrong cause : 

 proper warmth should be gained by excluding the 

 cold air, not by keeping in damp and heated ex- 

 halations from the horses' bodies. 

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