IN THE EGYPTIAN HOUSES. 
473 
of them remained out only twenty days, and during the following 
year none of them were sent out unless some disease rendered the 
use of green food expedient. 
This experiment was followed by the results I expected and 
wished. The horses were not so fat, but they were stronger, and dis- 
charged far better than before the work that was required of them. 
In the mean time, the minister changed the commanding officer of 
this district, and the newly promoted one was no sooner settled 
in his situation, than he expressed his determination not to hear 
of any modification of the ancient habits and practice of the country : 
it was therefore necessary to try some other plan. There was a 
stud at Choubrah, managed by the Turks. It is sufficient to say, 
that this establishment was precisely what was to be expected 
from such a management, and almost every possible disease pre- 
vailed in this confined, infectious inclosure, called a stud. Glan- 
ders, farcy, ramollissement of the liver, and worm diseases were of 
every-day occurrence. The numerous annual losses experienced 
in this institution determined his Highness to confide the direction 
of it to me. I had then an opportunity to institute, on a large scale, 
the desired experiments, and to prove, beyond dispute, the truth of 
that which I had asserted. I effected a total change in the manage- 
ment of the place, and, among other things, the system of feeding 
was considerably modified. Having at my disposal, during the whole 
of the year, plenty of lucerne and trefoil, I alternated the usage of 
these green plants with that of dry food. In the spring, only the 
mares and the colts ate more of green meat than of dry. This 
was also the case with our stallions during about two months, 
taking care, however, that they had, every night and morning, a 
little barley and straw. The usual exercise was taken, and the 
animals were loose in their paddocks. These changes contributed, 
by degrees, most singularly to ameliorate the constitution and con- 
dition of the animals. The diseases which prevailed in the old 
establishment disappeared, and softenings of the liver, so frequent 
at the present day (the end of 1838) were extremely rare. 
The different experiments to which I subjected the sick horses 
have proved to me that cold baths, cool and well-aired stables, 
substantial and varied food, and moderate exercise, were the proper 
measures to be adopted when ramollissement of the liver was feared. 
Curative Treatment . — I acknowledge that I was exceedingly 
embarrassed when I was first called upon to point out a remedy 
for a disease which had only lately offered itself to my attention. 
Examination of the pathognomonic symptoms soon enabled me to 
discover the seat of the lesion; but of what nature was it, and 
what treatment was I to employ] I had recourse, in the first 
place, to general bleedings, and mucilaginous drinks, and vesica- 
