592 
ON VETERINARY HYGIENE. 
That the ammoniacal gas furnished by the urine of horses — to 
say nothing about any noxious effluvia their dung may emit — is 
of an injurious, if not a poisonous nature, no man will doubt who 
has ever in his life entered, the first in the morning, a stable con- 
taining several horses, the doors and windows of which have been 
kept all night close shut up : his eyes will not fail to convince 
him, should his breath and smell not inform him, of the ammoni- 
acal noxiousness of the confined atmosphere. Supposing the win- 
dows of the stable had been opened, or that due ventilation had 
been afforded, undoubtedly the atmosphere would not have been 
of the same offensive description. Still, however, would the 
sources of such impurification have remained, the difference be- 
tween the ventilated and unventilated stables being simply this 
— that, from the currents or circulation of air generated in the one 
which were wanting in the other, the atmosphere of the former 
would have been by so much the less contaminated with ammoni- 
acal gases. But can ventilation, however effective, entirely free 
the stable atmosphere of such gases? Will the urinous surfaces 
and gutters cease to emit them ? And would it not be more rational 
that we should look a little to the fomes of impurity rather than 
exclusively bestow our attention on ventilation ? Does ventila- 
tion remove the stench from any corner of the street that may have 
been used by the passers-by as a place of urining ? Rather, is not 
our nose sorely offended every time we pass a place of this descrip- 
tion, even though it be completely out in the open air? Not that, 
for a moment, we would decry ventilation. At the same time we 
cannot but regard it as a matter not consonant with reason that we 
should devise every means of getting rid of a stench or impurity 
save that of removing or rendering unproductive the source of it. 
It is like a man who, having to sleep with a chafing dish of 
heated charcoal in his room, opens the window lest before morning 
he should be suffocated, when by putting out the charcoal fire he 
might have gone to bed without the slightest apprehension. 
Thus much premised, it will be seen that the object of this arti- 
cle is to draw attention to a point in our stable economy which 
hitherto has had scarcely any consideration given to it, with 
the view that, by so doing, the dwellings for our horses may be 
exempt from the noxious component of the stable atmosphere 
