656 LECTURE ON THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 
latter point is especially important. If you let an animal lie on a 
dry place, you will find it thrive. You will almost invariably find 
sheep and cattle lying in the course of the drains. Why is this 1 
Simply because that part is the driest. I here observe that the 
dew does not often hurt a man who lies beneath it. I believe 
that a man may lie down under the influence of dew with impu- 
nity, provided the ground itself is not moist. If the ground be 
moist and cold, there is an exhalation constantly arising from it, 
and a consequent chilling down of the vital powers which they 
cannot bear up against. Now, to mitigate such evils, there are 
used in some places hurdles thatched with straw. Such contri- 
vances break the force of an easterly wind, and are on many ac- 
counts desirable. If an animal is ailing, and you put it into a 
warm situation where it will have comfort and protection, it will 
probably soon recover and begin to thrive again ; whereas, if such 
precautions are neglected, it cannot be at all surprising if illness 
result in death. It is a sine qua non that the animal should have 
comfort, and that care should be taken to give it only the right 
kind of food. Heat alone affects animals by producing great 
exhaustion ; but heat with drought dries up the blood, and causes 
the secretions to be passed with difficulty. The most mischievous 
evil of all is wet with cold, especially if accompanied with easterly 
or north-easterly winds; it seems then to have such influence 
upon them, that they are glad to obtain any shelter they can find. 
In such cases, and where animals are placed in such situations, it 
would be easy, by means of a few hurdles thatched with straw, to 
give such a break to the wind as could not fail to. be beneficial. 
Again, with respect to cattle, the tender ones should be driven, 
under the circumstances alluded to, into pasture which is compara- 
tively sheltered, or even, perhaps, to the homestead. It may seem 
out of place to speak here of horses ; but I have observed over and 
over again that horses which are allowed to run about at night are, 
on the average, less healthy and less capable of bearing fatigue than 
others which are kept in the stable, where they have more warmth 
and comfort. My own experience enables me to speak on this 
subject with some degree of confidence. It is indispensable that 
the stable should be perfectly pure, warm, and comfortable. A 
similar observation is applicable in the case of sheep, cattle, and 
swine. 
These, then, are the remarks which I submit on the sub- 
ject of general management. I have not made any in the medical 
department, because that requires a great degree of study, and 
I might have only led you astray by entering upon it. That sub- 
ject will be infinitely better treated by those whose especial duty 
it is To consider it, and who are day by day in the constant prac- 
