232 CONFESSIONS OP A HORSE DEALER. 



of our large towns, that are little better, as regards the 

 health and comfort of our horses, than the black-hole 

 of Calcutta was to the poor unfortunates who so miser- 

 ably perished there ; indeed, I have seen many stables, 

 where, if their inmates were not allowed intervals of 

 fresh air during the time they are at work, they would 

 die in the same ratio. 



The stables to which I refer are situate under ground, 

 cellar-stables as they are so called. These are the very 

 worst places in which a horse can be placed, although 

 many of those above ground are bad enough, the gene- 

 rality of them being so badly ventilated. And where 

 this is the case, there must be disease in some form or 

 other. There are stables in London where as many as 

 sixty to seventy horses are crowded together, the stalls 

 for each not being five feet wide. Some of these have 

 boarded floors, on which the horses stand, and un- 

 derneath which the manure, mire, and other filth are 

 constantly accumulating, at the same time spreading 

 their poisonous exhalations throughout the entire 

 building. This, together with the perspiration and 

 breath of so many animals congregated together, in an 

 improperly ventilated building, must necessarily produce 

 disease. 



"We will suppose one of these horses has been work- 

 ing in a cab for the greater part of the day, all this 

 time breathing a pure air, or at least as pure as town 

 air generally is, at a regular temperature, and in the 

 evening he is brought into a stable where the tern- 



