280 
HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
and the greater capacity of his heart and lungs, the horse 
will require at least five times as much. As Mr. Barlow 
has already adverted at some length to the subject of overcrowding, 
I shall only remark concerning it that it appears to be injurious, 
chiefly by favouring the accumulation in the atmosphere of those 
emanations from living bodies, which, as already mentioned, appear 
to have a remarkably injurious effect on the general health. Filth 
and want of cleanliness are too much overlooked as causes of 
disease. They interfere much with the functions of the skin and 
lungs, and often contaminate the atmosphere with matters of a very 
virulent kind, capable of producing serious disease. Dr. Carpenter 
mentions a case which affords a good illustration of this. “A 
manufactory of artificial manure formerly existed immediately oppo- 
site Christchurch Workhouse, Spitalfields, which building was 
occupied by about 400 children, with a few adult paupers. When- 
ever the works were actively carried on, particularly when the wind 
blew in the direction of the house, there were produced numerous 
cases of fever, of an intractable and typhoid form ; a typhoid 
tendency was also observed in measles, smallpox, and other in- 
fantile diseases, and for some time there prevailed a most un- 
manageable and fatal form of aphthae of the mouth, ending in 
gangrene. From this last cause alone, 12 deaths took place among 
the infants in one quarter. In the month of December, 1848, 
when cholera had already occurred in the neighbourhood, 60 of 
the children in the workhouse were suddenly seized with violent 
diarrhoea in the early morning. The proprietor was compelled to 
close his establishment, and the children returned to their ordinary 
health. Five months afterwards the works were recommenced ; in 
a day or two subsequently, the wind blowing from the manufactory, 
a most powerful stench pervaded the building. In the night fol- 
lowing 45 of the boys, whose dormitories directly faced the 
manufactory, were again suddenly seized with severe diarrhoea ; 
whilst the girls, whose dormitories were in a more distant part, 
and faced in a different direction, escaped. The manufactory 
having been again suppressed, there was no subsequent return 
of diarrhoea .” — (. Principles of Human Physiology , pp. 552-3.) 
Defective Drainage appears to owe its injurious effects on general 
health, and its special influence in predisposing the body to in- 
fluenza, to its increasing the moisture of the air, lowering its 
temperature, and contaminating it with putrescent emanations. 
Close, damp, and hazy weather, sudden and excessive vicissitudes 
of temperature, particularly in spring or autumn, and long and 
harassing journeys, also appear especially apt to determine the 
production of influenza. But I must now bring these few and 
imperfect observations to a close, and shall only remark, in con- 
clusion, that every agriculturist who desires to maintain his horses 
free from influenza, or indeed from any other disease, must en- 
deavour to protect them from all health-depressing influences, must 
allow them abundance of pure fresh air, roomy, dry, comfortable, 
well-lighted stables, and sufficiency of good suitable food, and must 
