54 
DARVILL ON THE CARE, TREATMENT, 
physic,” it is ventilation; if the veterinarian, in particular, can 
be said to have a counter-agent to his employ, it is one clothed in 
the unsubstantial form of ventilation; if the Hygeian goddess 
have any influence over the animal world, she must surely visit it 
in some such form as ventilation . Every physiological fact bear¬ 
ing upon the point corroborates what we are now affirming; while 
experience, 
“ That jewel purchased at an infinite rate,” 
steps in to seal our assertions. 
The veterinarian’s eyes have now long been opened, and his 
attention rendered active and lively, towards this important 
consideration in stable discipline; but many a groom—a mem¬ 
ber of the “old school”—still reluctantly opens his stable win¬ 
dows, clinging with notorious obstinacy to the fallacious con¬ 
clusion, that what is agreeable, or “ comfortable,” to his own 
perverted feelings, must prove equally so to the horse’s; and that 
while the animal’s coat continues smooth and creditable to him, 
all other considerations are of inferior value. Only read what 
Mr. Darvill says on the subject:— 
“ It was formerly the common practice among grooms, in the winter and 
spring, to regulate the temperature of the stables agreeably to their own 
feelings; and it was their custom (at least of those I lived under), if the 
weather was at all cold, to have the long dung laid at the bottom of the sta¬ 
ble door, and to have every aperture in the stable closed: this, together 
with the heat from the breath of the horses, and the fumes arising from the 
wet dung under them, made the stables what was called by the groom 
“ comfortably warmfor in those days it was the custom (to use the lan¬ 
guage of the stable) “to muck out only twice a week.” This temperature, 
I should say, if allowed to speak from my own sensations, far exceeded, in 
all probability, that of a hot-house, to say nothing of the impurity of such 
air. Indeed, at the time to which I am now alluding, I could mention 
many proofs, in a variety of instances, of the inconsistency of a number of 
grooms in the management of horses; but I have great satisfaction in 
stating, that the generality of these men now understand the thing much 
better than they formerly did ”-“ It is now pretty clearly understood, 
and, indeed, universally admitted by them, that a constant supply of fresh, 
pure air, is not only beneficial, but absolutely necessary for the preservation 
of the health of all horses taken from a state of nature, and placed in an 
artificial atmosphere; and this necessity becomes more absolute in regard 
to race-horses.” 
And why?—because the health of a racer is of more considera¬ 
tion—thousands, perhaps, depending upon it—than that of any 
other horse. 
Mr. D. adds, however, the racer being originally sprung from 
a hot climate, it becomes necessary, during training, “ to keep 
the stable up to a certain temperature;” for which purpose he 
recommends keeping thermometers in the stables. The degree of 
heat he fixes at 62 of Fahrenheit. 
