OF THE HORSE. 457 



couple of hours or more in a temperature fifteen or twenty degrees below that of 

 the stable. Putting the inhumanity of this out of the question, must not the 

 animal thus unnaturally and absurdly treated be subjected to rheumatism 

 catarrh, and various other complaints ? Does he not often stand, hour after 

 hour, in the road or the street, while his owner is warming himself within, and 

 this perhaps after every pore has been opened by a brushing gallop, and his 

 susceptibility to the painful and the injurious influence of cold has been excited 

 to the utmost ? 



It is not so generally known, as it ought to be, that the return to a hot stable 

 is quite as dangerous as the change from a heated atmosphere to a cold and 

 biting air. Many a horse that has travelled without harm over a bleak country 

 has been suddenly seized with inflammation and fever when he has, immediately 

 at the end of his journey, been surrounded with heated and foul air. It is the 

 sudden change of temperature, whether from heat to cold, or from cold to heat, 

 that does the mischief, and yearly destroys thousands of horses. 



Mr. Clarke of Edinburgh was the first who advocated the use of well venti- 

 lated stables. After him Professor Coleman established them in the quarters 

 of the cavalry troops, and there cannot be a doubt that he saved the Govern- 

 ment many thousand pounds every year. His system of ventilation, however, 

 like many other salutary innovations, was at first strongly resisted. Much evil 

 was predicted ; but after a time, diseases that used to dismount whole troops 

 almost entirely disappeared from the army. 



The stable should be as large, compared with the number of horses that 

 it is destined to contain, as circumstances will allow. A stable for six horses 

 should not be less than forty feet in length, and thirteen or fourteen feet wide. 

 If there is no loft above, the inside of the roof should always be plastered, in 

 order to prevent direct currents of air and occasional droppings from broken tiles. 

 The heated and foul air should escape, and cool and pure air be admitted, by eleva- 

 tion of the central tiles ; or by large tubes carried through the roof, with caps a 

 little above them, to prevent the beating in of the rain ; or by gratings placed high 

 up in the walls. These latter apertures should be as far above the horses as 

 they can conveniently be placed, by which means all injurious draught will be 

 prevented. 



If there is a loft above the stable, the ceiling should be plastered, in order to 

 prevent the foul air from penetrating to the hay above, and injuring both its 

 taste and its wholesomeness ; and no openings should be allowed above the racks, 

 through which the hay may be thrown into them ; for they will permit the 

 foul air to ascend to the provender, and also in the act of filling the rack, and 

 while the horse is eagerly gazing upward for his food, a grass seed may fall into 

 the eye, and produce considerable inflammation. At other times, when the 

 careless groom has left open the trap- door, a stream of cold air beats down on 

 the head of the horse. 



The stable with a loft over it should never be less than twelve feet high, 

 and proper ventilation should be secured either by tubes carried through the 

 loft to the roof, or by gratings close to the ceiling. These gratings or openings 

 should be enlarged or contracted by means of a covering or shutter, so that 

 during spring, summer, and autumn, the stable may possess nearly the same 

 temperature with the open air, and in winter a temperature of not more than 

 ten degrees above that of the external atmosphere. 



A hot stable has, in the mind of the groom, been long connected with a glossy 

 cooat. The latter, it is thought, cannot be obtained without the former. 



To this wo should reply that, in winter, a thin, glossy coat is not desirable. 

 Nature gives to every animal a warmer clothing when the cold weather 



