652 
REMARKS ON THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS. 
in good condition out of a cold one. Nay, I will go further, 
and assert, that a horse, which no exertions of the groom can 
get to look and be well in a cold stable in the winter, shall, on 
his being removed into a warm one, be in good condition in a 
month !” “Stop up every crevice in the stable, taking care only 
that there be a pipe or two to let the foul air out. Never mind 
the fresh air, enough of that will find its way through the key¬ 
hole ; but let there be vent for that which is foetid.” 
There was a time when we set our faces completely against 
a warm stable. We imbibed the antipathy from our alma mater 
—the Veterinary College. Our experience has taught us, that 
in this unqualified condemnation we were in error ;—that to get 
a horse into “ blooming condition,” a certain degree of heat is as 
essential to him as good food : a genial warmth must be kept up 
in his habitation, without which (native of a warm climate, as the 
horse by nature is), like the plants out of the hot-house, he will 
never reach the same state of perfection with those within the 
hot-house. What single sign have we more truly indicative of 
the good health and kindliness of the animal, than the smooth, 
silken, glossy condition of his coat ? And can this be acquired 
without warmth ? Is not one the natural concomitant of the 
other? How all this is effected through the agency of heat we 
are not about to inquire in this place ; all that we feel desirous 
to assert is, that in relation to condition our own medical ex¬ 
perience fully confirms what our friend Nimrod has learnt from 
sheer practice in the hunting stable. 
I shall therefore conclude my remarks on this part of my 
subject, with observing, that if it be possible to get a horse to 
live well in a cold stable, all the grooming on earth would never 
get him to look well in a damp one. A horse is all but a baro¬ 
meter, being most sensibly affected by change of weather. As 
to hot stables being prejudicial to a horse’s eyes or lungs, I will 
not admit it to be the case, provided there be vent for the foul 
air to escape, and no accumulation of foul litter be suffered to 
remain. It is that which does the mischief; and all grooms 
who suffer a horse’s bed to become foul, or a heap of damp or 
wet litter to remain in the stable, because they are too idle to 
take it outside the door, ought to be kicked out of it.” 
There is a passage in Mr. Percivall’s work which bears so 
directly upon this point (so cruelly dogmatically insisted on by 
our worthy author), that we cannot refrain from citing it. It 
runs thus:— 
<4 As heat is a pretty constant constituent of a poisonous 
atmosphere, it appears, at first view, difficult to say, whether it 
be to one or to the other that we should ascribe the excitation of 
