Preventive mid Curative Treatment. 131 



over-heated stables are eminently prejudicial to the health of 

 horses, and it is in these that we find those fevers and dis- 

 orders prevailing which are so often followed by Eoaring. 

 For none of the other domesticated animals is plenty of pure 

 dry air so essential, and it should be rather cool than hot. 

 If the horses must be kept warm during cold weather, then 

 this should be done by clothing the body, and, if need be, the 

 limbs. This treatment has been insisted upon by the most 

 experienced horsemen, who have not ceased to point out the 

 injury inflicted upon horses by hot, foul stables. Admiral 

 Rous, for instance, speaking of Roaring in race-horses, men- 

 tions the advantages of cool stables and fresh air, and says : 

 " I have no doubt that Roarers might be improved a stone 

 if they were trained from an open shed, sheltered from wet 

 and rain, keeping them warmly clothed, and always in the 

 open air." 



The hygienic management which is best adapted to pre- 

 vent the occurrence of coughs, colds, fevers, pleurisies, pneu- 

 monias, and other affections of the air-passages and chest, is 

 that which will afford most security against the develop, 

 ment of Roaring, whether or not the predisposition to it be 

 present in horses. Everything should be done to prevent 

 their being attacked by Strangles — a very infectious disease, 

 spreading only by its infectious properties, and which, in 

 western countries at least, is so frequently followed by 

 Roaring. Indeed, so marked has this sequel been in 

 my experience among horses, that for some years, while I 

 was a regimental veterinary surgeon, I treated every case of 

 Strangles in such a way that, in my opinion, injury to the 

 left recurrent nerve was less likely to occur from pressure 

 upon it by enlarged bronchial lymphatic glands. This 

 treatment chiefly consisted, in the administration of iodide 

 of potassium, or iodide of iron ; and I have reason to believe 

 that it was very successful.^ 



Food does not appear to have so much influence in pre- 



^ " Veterinary Journal," vol. xiv., p. 93. 



9—2 



