LECTURE ON THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 
651 
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 ammo- 
niacal gases. But can ventilation, however effective, entirely 
free the stable atmosphere of such gases 1 Will the urinous 
surfaces and gutters cease to emit them 1 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 
ventilation remove the stench from any corner of the street that 
may have been used by the passers-by as a place of urining 1 
Rather, is not our nose sorely offended every time we pass a place 
of this description, 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.” 
Now, Sir, that gentleman has been making some very important 
experiments in the stables of the First Life Guards, at the Regent’s- 
park barracks ; and though I may appear to be now touching on a 
point rather foreign to the subject of the diseases of cattle, yet I 
must remark that the same observation applies to all ; and these 
experiments, having been carried on under favourable circum- 
stances, are, on that account, the more valuable. Sulphuric acid in 
dilution was tried by this gentleman, and the result was certainly 
very satisfactory. He says : — 
“ The prescribed method of using the vitriol was, that it should 
be diluted with nine parts of water, and that saw-dust, thoroughly 
wetted with the mixture, should be sprinkled over the flooring of 
the stables, those places being the most plentifully supplied which 
afforded any ^pdgment for the urine. This was done, and the re- 
sult was more or less effervescence wherever the acidulated saw- 
dust came in contact with the horses’ urine, with evident extrica- 
tion of gas, and of that exceedingly offensive description, that it 
became a question whether such gaseous emission was not likely 
to be even more obnoxious to the inmates than the urinous exhala- 
tion itself. What, however, rendered this discharge of gas most 
perceptible and unpleasant to us who were in the stable at the 
time was, the pouring of the acid and water mixture, without the 
