A SKETCH OF THE STATE OF 
2l(] 
Before M. Hamont arrived in Egypt the management of the 
animals in the stud-houses was most unscientific and absurd. 
The horses and mares were day and night tied by all four feet, 
without the possibility of the least exercise. The quantity of 
barley and of water allowed them for the four-and-twenty hours 
was given all at once; the stables were always inconvenient, 
and never ventilated; and the intercourse of the sexes took place 
at every period of the year, and without any regard to the quali¬ 
ties or points of the parents. 
The most serious inconveniences naturally resulted from this 
preposterous system. The horses condemned to this almost depri¬ 
vation of motion began to lose, to a certain degree, the use of their 
limbs, and were never equal to rapid or long-continued exertion. 
The faulty habit of giving them food only once in the day 
caused various diseases and morbid changes in the abdominal 
viscera, and of which the liver was the principal seat. The im¬ 
pregnation of the mares depending entirely on chance, a great 
proportion of the foals were either ill-formed, or produced at a 
time of the year when the rain and cold exercised an unfavour¬ 
able influence on their growth, or developed in them the germ of 
glanders or farcy. 
M. Hamont had to repair all these errors ; and he established 
himself at Choubra, where his presence had become indispensa¬ 
ble. It was no longer necessary at the school of Abou Zabel, 
which was now perfectly organized. 
It was in the month of February, 1836, that M. Hamont defi¬ 
nitively assumed the direction of the stud at Choubra. He 
limited the use of the stallion to the period between the 1st of 
March and about the 15th of May, depending on the character of 
the season. He reformed the method of feeding, and in the course 
of the first year he reduced the number of deaths to less than 
half of their usual average. 
After having completely reformed the stud, M. Hamont, always 
indefatigable, directed his attention to the improvement of the 
breed and management of the sheep; and he caused a building 
with the necessary conveniences, to be erected in the centre of 
the Delta, about twenty-five leagues from Cairo. • 
