AIR — L.TTER. 387 



itself to the situation in which it is placed, and the horse that 

 lives in the stable-oven suffers less from it than would scarcely 

 be conceived possible ; but he does not, and cannot, possess the 

 power and the hardihood which he would acquire under other 

 circumstances. 



The air of the improperly close and heated stable is still fiir- 

 thcr contanunated by the urine and dung, which rapidly ferment 

 there, and give out stimulating and unwholesome vapors. When 

 a person first enters an ill-managed stable, and especially early 

 in the morning, he is annoyed, not only by the heat of the con- 

 fined air, but by a pungent smell, resembling hartshorn ; and can 

 he be surprised at the inflammation of the eyes, and the chronic 

 cough, and the disease of the lungs, by which the animal, who 

 has been aU night shut up in this vitiated atmosphere, is often 

 attacked ; or if glanders and farcy should occasionally break out 

 m such stables ? It has been ascertained by chemical experi- 

 ment that the urine of the horse contains in it an exceedingly 

 large quantity of hartshorn ; and not only so, but that, influenced 

 by the heat of a crowded stable, and possibly by other decompo- 

 sitions that are going forward at the same time, this ammoniacal 

 vapor begins to be rapidly given out almost immediately after 

 the urine is voided. 



When disease begins to appear among the inhabitants of these 

 iU-ventilated places, is it wonderful that it should rapidly spread 

 among them, and that the plague-spot should be, as it were, 

 placed on the door of such a stable ? When distemper appears 

 in spring or in autumn, it is in very many cases to be traced to 

 such a pest-house. It is peculiarly fatal there. The horses be- 

 longing to a small establishment, and rationally treated, have it 

 comparatively seldom, or have it lightly ; but among the inmates 

 of a crow^ded stable it is sure to display itself, and there it is most 

 fatal. The experience of every veterinary surgeon, and of every 

 large proprietor of horses, will corroborate this statement. 



Every stable should possess within itself a certain degree of 

 ventilation. The cost of this would be trifling, and its saving in 

 the preservation of valuable animals may be immense. The 

 apertures need not be large, and the whole may be so contrived 

 that no direct current of air shall fall on the horse. 



,A gentleman's stable should never be without a thermometer. 

 The temperature should seldom exceed 70' in the summer, or sink 

 below 40 ' or 50' in the winter. 



LITTER. 



Having spoken of the vapor of hartshorn, which is so rapidly 

 and so olentifuUy given out from the urine of a horse in a heated 



