REMARKS ON KENNEL LAMENESS. 47 



was used regularly during winter, the lameness became 

 manifest ; out of forty couples there were sometimes 

 fourteen or fifteen couples lame ; the usual remedies, 

 of which 1 shall speak hereafter, were tried ; but 

 although some became eventually sound, their reco- 

 very might be attributed more to turning them out to 

 run loose than to any artificial resources. Another 

 cause from which kennel lameness may be supposed 

 to arise, is the situation being upon ground where 

 the springs rise up in a direct line. The best reason 

 to give for its existence where the ground is sandy, is 

 that the exhalation from that sort of soil is much 

 greater than from any other, and that the damp arising 

 from it, although imperceptible in itself, causes lame- 

 ness, which is, in fact, rheumatism. In looking into 

 the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," where there 

 is an article upon " Artesian Wells,"* by M. Arago, I 

 find that in this supposition I am partly borne out by 

 the opinion of Aristotle, which is there quoted ; he 

 considered that a central heat is produced by the 

 increased humidity arising from water pent up in the 

 inside of the earth, and which finds its easiest escape 

 through that body which is the most porous ; this 

 water was supposed by him, and also by many other 

 philosophical inquirers, to be filtered through the 

 various strata of soil from the sea (and not composed 

 of rain-water as has been conjectured by some persons), 

 as it has been attested that rain-water never penetrates 

 very deep into the ground ; but whether that is the 

 case or not, it makes no sort of difference to what I 



• From the FrencL province of Artois, where extensive reseaicbes were carried 

 ou for the discovery of iubterronean water. 



