PECULIAR DOCTRINES. 
249 
with which he sets out is only true in part ; but without entering 
into all the phenomena and circumstances which attend what is 
commonly called catching or taking cold, whether in a slight or 
serious degree, we may observe, that the causes of inflammation of 
the lungs are very various, and often opposite ; but admitting that 
its proximate cause may have been a heated atmosphere or over- 
exertion, why should we therefore expose our patient to the very 
reverse by way of remedy. The lungs are now (be the cause what 
it may) in a diseased state, overloaded, and exceedingly suscepti- 
ble ; and in order to their relief, the most important object, after 
proper active treatment, is to encourage and determine the circula- 
tion of the blood to the surface of the skin and extremities of the 
body. In spite of warm clothing, a very cold atmosphere com- 
pletely checks these desirable indications, and at the same time 
irritates the inflamed and tender mucous membrane of the respira- 
tory organs in an injurious manner. There is a common-place 
truism brought in to back the former, and in frequent use at the 
College, that “ cold is a direct sedative but does it follow 
that its application in these inflammatory cases is justifiable by 
sound philosophy 1 I am not defending very hot stables, or deny- 
ing that they may often occasion this disease ; but neither the 
truth nor the antidote lie in a recourse to the opposite extreme. 
The doctrine itself is pernicious, but its abuse is much worse 
still. Cold air must be had, says the Professor to his class ; but 
a shed or a loose box is not always obtainable for their patients; and 
then, what is to be done 1 Why, to open the doors and windows 
is the practice, and allow a cold draft to stream upon the poor 
animal, whose skin is much more sensitive than our own, and who 
is, besides, unable to remove aside, or protect himself from its bane- 
ful effects. 
Not only has no proper distinction been drawn by Mr. C. be- 
tween an elevated roomy stable and this current of cold air system, 
but he formally recommends the latter, so that a hole in the wall 
directly overhead, and another behind each horse, is the basis and 
manner of the boasted improved ventilation for which he has taken 
credit in the army stables and elsewhere. 
It is impossible to imagine the number of valuable horses which 
have been sacrificed by the adoption of this thorough-draft princi- 
ple in confined stables, where its effects are most severely felt ; 
yet has the theory been urged on successive pupils for forty years, 
without check or rebuke of any kind, unless it be that, after mul- 
tiplied proof of its fatal results, it is silently discontinued by ob- 
serving practitioners. These will, I think, agree with me, that a 
cool still atmosphere is desirable, but that these currents of cold air 
