652 LECTURE ON THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 
saw-dust, over the flooring of the stable, through a garden watering- 
pot. When thoroughly wetted in this manner, and the mixture 
had begun to soak into the soil between the crevices of the pave- 
ment of the stable, which had become super-saturated with urine 
— the deposit of years — the surfaces became everywhere covered 
with creamy effervescence ; while the disengagement of offensive 
gas was so great that to hold our noses over the effervescing sur- 
faces was, from the intolerable sour foetor arising, next to impossi- 
ble. On the following day the same acid watering was repeated, 
and for two successive days.afterwards ; the effervescence on each 
day being manifestly less, and a vitriolic or sour odour becoming 
prevalent over the sickening gaseous discharge which the first 
watering occasioned. Since this the stables have remained with- 
out any farther dressing, and the result has been such a complete 
super-saturation with acid, that the ammoniated and urinous odours 
have been altogether suppressed. The vitriol used was the brown 
— the sulphuric acid of commerce — which, at the manufacturers, is 
purchaseable at about a penny a pound.” 
This stable, which contains, I think, fourteen horses, I visited 
last Tuesday, when a considerable period had elapsed from the 
time when the vitriol was applied, and when there was a greater 
accumulation to be acted upon. The stable was remarkably 
sweet, and the vitriol had produced the desired effect, in a most 
efficient manner. The next thing that was tried was “ a rough, 
impure sort of sulphate of lime, said to be a product in the manu- 
facture of acetic acid, resulting in the decomposition of the acetate 
of lime used for that purpose. Instead of being white, like gyp- 
sum, it had a dark cinder-like appearance, which was said to be 
owing to its having become impregnated with the tar coming from 
the wood (commonly beech) burnt on such occasions. We found 
it very pulverizable, and that its powder was dry and absorbent : 
we therefore deemed it best to sprinkle the flooring of the stables 
with it, the same as we would with so much sand, and the result 
proved very satisfactory. A box used for sick horses, and which 
had been, from its faulty pavement (being very uneven and full of 
holes), noted for an offensive atmosphere, particularly in the 
morning when the litter was first taken out, was, after one pretty 
copious sprinkling, deprived at once of its offensiveness, nor has it, 
in the face of subsequent dressings, since returned. This sulphate 
of lime, to be procured at the acetic acid factories, is extremely 
cheap — a few shillings will purchase a cart load ; and it is, we** 
should say from our limited experience, well worth further trial as 
a purifier of stables.” I consider not only ventilation, but the 
proper management of manure, extremely important to agricul- 
turists ; and, if the system of taking sheep into the house to feed, 
