4 
VAPOUR-BATH FOll HORSES. 
boiler, is now turned on. With a little humouring by a man 
standing at his head, the horse, though he may be at first dis- 
pleased with his situation and be fidgetty, soon becomes reconciled * 
and quiet, and for the space of twenty minutes, or, even in some 
instances, half an hour, we hear no more of his inquietude : his 
bath appears to be growing comfortable to him — he seems to be 
enjoying it. At the expiration of twenty, or from that to thirty 
minutes, however, he begins again to express uneasiness, aris- 
ing now, probably, from his feeling himself uncomfortably warm ; 
and if a thermometer be introduced at this time into the bath, 
we shall find the temperature of the steam has been raised to 
140° or 150° of Far # . Continued in the bath beyond this, his 
expressions begin to amount to more than uneasiness, and 
speedily to attain that character that, five minutes afterwards 
or so, we are, from feelings of humanity, induced to set our 
subject of experiment (a healthy one) at liberty. While in the 
bath, so long as he is not irritated, neither his pulse nor his 
respiration can be said to be augmented ; although, soon after 
he is come out of the bath, he is dripping with perspiration from 
every part and pore of his skin, save his head. It was at first 
doubted that this was really sweat; it was imagined to be no- 
thing but condensed steam : three circumstances, however, proved 
that it was secretion, not condensation : — the first is, that it does 
not, in its fullest abundance, make its appearance until some 
short time after the horse has left the bath ; the second is, that 
the scraper, then used, elicits fluid from the roots of the hair; 
the third, that the fluid, thus scraped off the skin, has a saline 
taste, similar to that of the matter of perspiration. 
Under what circumstances — in what states of disease or even 
of health, a vapour-bath may prove desirable or beneficial, one 
cannot at this early period of its use be expected to offer any 
satisfactory opinion : the grand desideratum — the employment 
or application of the bath being accomplished, it cannot be long 
before we have cases to record of its utility. All veterinary esta- 
blishments of any magnitude or importance must now be fur- 
nished with steam-baths : the Veterinary Colleges at London and 
Edinburgh, the Royal Horse Infirmary at Woolwich, and every 
private horse infirmary, can no longer remain without this neces- 
sary appendage to their present provisions for the curing of dis- 
ease, the soothing of pain, and the comforting of their suffering 
patients. 
* A stable-barometer was introduced between the curtains, and, after a 
time, withdrawn, and as quickly as possible cleaned from steam and inspected. 
This clumsy mode — the only means we had at hand — of measuring the tem- 
perature, shewed that the heat must be greater within the interior of the bath, 
and particularly underneath the animal’s belly. 
