346 OX THE DISEASES OF FATtM HORSES. 
they are particularly susceptible to the influence of cold and 
moisture. 
The indirect operations of cold and moisture deserve a 
passing notice. Suppose a horse-team, after a long and tire¬ 
some journey, instead of being taken direct to the stable, is left 
standing for some considerable time, exposed the while to severe 
winter weather, whilst the driver is sheltering and regaling 
himself in the wayside inn. This is no very uncommon case. 
Internal congestions may occur from the chill suddenly arresting 
the perspiration and throwing the blood inwardly, and oppress¬ 
ing some of the internal organs. But the chances are, the 
horses will escape this danger, from the healthy reaction which 
follows the effect of cold, provided their vital energies have not 
been much exhausted by excessive labour and want of food. 
And yet, on their arrival home to what may seem to be most 
comfortable quarters, they meet there with a greater enemy 
than either cold, or wet, or hunger— the heated stable; and the 
reaction which follows the exposure of the body in these in¬ 
stances frequently produces inflammation and their common 
result. 
Farm stables are not only frequently heated to excess, in 
consequence of the number of its inmates, but they are foul 
and vitiated from gases or vapours of a positively noxious 
quality, engendered from the decomposition of the litter, dung, 
and urine, together with animal exhalation. The deleterious 
operation of effluvia, arising under these circumstances, may be 
short of a directly poisonous effect, yet it gradually undermines 
the health, and can only be counteracted by a more efficient 
means of ventilation and general cleanliness. The distinction 
should be drawn between a hot stable and a foul one, as the 
former is capable of producing one series of effects, and a foul 
one another. In the foul stable we have heat and impurity, 
arising from the same source, and operating in combination, 
producing not only a tendency to inflammatory diseases, but 
others of a more serious character. 
It commonly happens that a variety of agents and circum¬ 
stances may be required to act in combination to produce some 
diseases. Thus horses that are badly fed and over-worked by 
day, are very likely to be exposed to heated, vitiated stables 
at night; and these are the common victims of consumption, 
farcy, glanders, and specific ophthalmia. 
A few words about farm stables. —The ceilings should never 
be less than ten or twelve feet. They should be well lighted, 
properly ventilated, and be kept dry both from above and 
below, with the means of perfect cleanliness at all times. The 
