472 
REVIEW. 
inimical to animal life. If not, therefore, carried away by proper 
ventilation, a combination of its poisonous qualities with the atmo¬ 
spheric air renders its inspiration a matter of certainty ; and, as effect 
following upon cause, if the life-supporting qualities of that air be 
impregnated with death-dealing gases in insufficient quantities to sus¬ 
pend totally the functions of nature, we have, beyond the possibility of 
Controversion, a p ojiortionate deterioration of constitutional power. * * * 
“ I'lie question may occur to the reader not well informed on the 
subject before us: Why does not this poison collect in the atmospl e e 
out of doors, seeing that at all times there is plentiful sources of it in the 
respiration of animals, combustion, fermentation, &c. ? It would be 
so if the most minute dispensations were not attended to in that al¬ 
mighty whole, creation, under the never-sleeping eye of a bountiful 
and vigilant Providence; and if by one of these beautiful arrangi- 
ments,—the attributes of the mighty Governor of animate and inanimate 
nature,—the casualty bad not been anticipated by the principle of 
vegetable existence; it being ordered that that enemy to life, carbonic 
acid gas, should be decomposed by them, retaining the carbonic, and 
setting the oxygen, the vivifying fluid of animate nature, free. * * * 
“The proper means to be adopted for the purification of the stable, 
will he having a mode of ingress for the pure air, about two yards 
distant in the walls of the stable, near the foundation, and a similar 
channel for egress at the opposite wall, above the horses’ heads, as high 
as possible. The holes over the heads may be nine inches square, and 
those on a level with the ground at the opposite wall not more than 
four inches. The working of such machinery can be easily discovered, 
by placing a feather or lighted candle at the openings near the ground, 
when either will be blown inwards, proving an inward current of atmo¬ 
sphere or pure air; while a similar trial at the holes near the ceiling 
will show an outward stream of the lighter poisonous gases. The man 
must he either very obtuse in intellect, or very reckless of his own in¬ 
terest and his servant’s comforts, that after consideration of these facts 
will neglect the remedy within reach of the poorest or most niggardly. 
“Ignorant grooms will frequently stop the ventilators with hay, more 
particularly in winter, either not knowing, or not caring, that ventilation 
is as requisite at one season as another; and that if accustomed to a 
healthful current of air, the most tender horse will never take injury 
from it.” (p. 94.) 
Our limits preclude an extension of this review. We 
commend the work to the notice of our readers, as it contains 
much sound advice, the stability of the basis of which the 
author has a perfect reliance on. 
