IN CAVALRY REGIMENTS. 53 
Not only the crowding of a great number of horses in one 
stable must be prejudicial to health, but the collecting of a great 
quantity of them in divers stables contiguous to each other may 
have a bad effect. It is easy to conceive of this. Six or seven 
hundred horses cannot be crowded upon two or three acres of 
land without much contrivance and inconvenience, and every re- 
cess and corner must be occupied. In this there is an immense 
difference between the cavalry horses and those of the farmer and 
the gentleman. Seven hundred horses belonging to the latter are 
scattered in such a manner as to occupy two or three hundred 
stables and ten leagues of ground : the others are packed in such 
a manner that every one touches his neighbour — that each 
animal has only so many cubic feet of air around him, and that 
he cannot turn without hurting or displacing his neighbour. 
The heat of one augments that of another ; and not one of them 
can lie down without incommoding his fellow, and incurring the 
danger of being trampled under foot. 
In support of this, I will cite a fact of universal occurrence. 
Fifteen hundred men embarked on board one large vessel will have 
far more disease among them than would have appeared had 
they been divided between two frigates, in which, in reality, they 
would not have had more room ; and their health would suffer 
still less, if they had been portioned in three ships of still smaller 
dimension. Ten thousand men encamped on one piece of ground 
have more diseases among them than if they had been divided 
into two camps, each only half the size of the first. 
The cavalry horses are crowded together, and little at ease ; 
hence results the impossibility of lying down, or at least of re- 
posing quietly ; hence, fatigue and impatience, constant clattering 
and pawing, and the too speedy destruction of the litter, always 
insufficient ; hence, the continuance of the urine on the floor, 
since there is nothing to absorb it ; hence, an ammoniacal va- 
pour always perceptible, and peculiarly offensive when the sta- 
bles are first opened in the morning ; hence, irritation of the 
respiratory passages, and inflammation of the eyes, See. — effects 
the more easily produced, since the horses, twelve hours out of 
the four and twenty, have under their noses the litter saturated 
with urine, or converted into dung. From want of space it is 
also nearly impossible to dress the horses properly. 
Beside the small size of the stables, compared with the num- 
ber of horses which they contain, there are other circumstances 
which contribute to the unhealthiness of many cavalry stables. 
They are often too low, badly ventilated, dark, and damp. It is 
painful to confess it ; but there is in France, in this respect, a 
negligence which will not find its parallel in any other country. 
