NEGLECTED COMFORT, & C., OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 399 
the 10th of March. Each sheep consumed on an average 20 lbs. 
of Swedes daily. Another hundred were folded in pens of a simi- 
lar size, but without sheds attached. They were kept during the 
same time, and their daily consumption of Swedes amounted to 
25 lbs. each. Here the circumstances were precisely similar with 
respect to exercise, the only difference being that the first hundred 
sheep had sheds into which they might retire, and thus be partially 
protected from the cold. 
“ This partial protection was equivalent to a certain amount of 
food, and consequently we find that the sheep enjoying this pro- 
tection consumed one- fifth less food than those sheep which were 
left entirely exposed to the cold. In the last case the con- 
sumption of the additional food arose wholly from the necessity of 
adding more fuel (food) to the furnace of the body, in order to keep 
up its normal temperature. This was proved from the circum- 
stance that those sheep which enjoyed the protection had increased 
3 lbs. each more than those left unprotected, although the latter had 
consumed one-fifth more food.” 
Even light exerts a very considerable influence upon the health 
of animals. Every horse-dealer is aware how much too rapidly a 
horse kept quietly in a dark stable gets into condition : a blind 
horse generally carries a good coat. Mr. Ward, an eminent sur- 
geon, remarks on this head {Report on State of Health in large 
Towns , p. 41) : — “ During a practice of thirty years in a densely 
populated neighbourhood, my attention has been repeatedly drawn 
to the influence of light, not only as a most efficient means of pre- 
venting disease, but likewise as tending materially to render dis- 
ease milder when it occurs, and more amenable to medical and 
other treatment. Dupuytren, I think, relates the case of a lady 
whose maladies had baffled the skill of several eminent practition- 
ers. This lady resided in a dark room (into which the sun never 
shone) in one of the narrow streets of Paris. After a careful exa- 
mination, Dupuytren was led to refer her complaints to the absence 
of light, and recommended her removal to a more cheerful situa- 
tion. This change was followed by the most beneficial results : 
all her complaints vanished. 
“ Dr. Edwards also observes that persons who live in caves and 
cellars, or in very dark and narrow streets, are apt to produce de- 
formed children ; and that men who w r ork in mines are liable to 
disease and deformity beyond what the simple closeness of the air 
would be likely to produce.” 
It is needless to urge that facts like these are of the highest im- 
portance to the farmer’s best interests — to the increased profits of 
agriculture — to the health, to the good appearance, and the comfort 
