The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-04-09 00:00:00

ON THE ROMAN BATH AS APPLICABLE TO
TRAINING RACE HOBBEEL

HT TEI SOX. ADMIEAL BOWL

The most wonderful discoveries have lately taken
place in every branch of science, and the most extra-
ordinary inventions and improvements in every item
connected with the luxuries and the comfort' of man-
kind; general education has civilised and enlightened
the great working classes. There is one profession,
however, on a humble scale which has made no progress,
no improvement for one hundred and fifty years • I
mean, the training of race-horses : and at the same time
I must add my testimony that • more respectable or a
better clans of tradesmen do not exist than the majority
of English trainers, who, from being in constant com-
munication with gentlemen, imbibe liberal ideas, and
prove themselves worthy of the highest trust and re-
sponaibility. _

'Thanks 'to Mr. Urquhart for the introduction of
Turkish alias Roman baths, • new era has arisen, the
present barbarous system of preparing horse.' to rase by
drastic purgatives, hot clothing, hot stables, and four
and five miles sweats, will be ameliorated, and we may
look forward with confidence to • revolation, by the aid
of hot-air baths, which will enable • trainer to bring his
horses to the post in first-rate condition, without sub-
jecting them to • destructive apprenticeship.
The Roman bath invigorates a horse's frame, gives
increased action to his liver, improves his appetite,
cleanses the pores of suppressed perspiration, and forti-
fies the skin from extreme heat and cold • the joints
become mere supple, the sinews more elastic, and the
heart, longs, and kidneys, being freed from fat, home
are able to take the strongest exercise, without suffer-
ing from internal fever. Rheumatism, sore shins, and
cutaneous eruptions are speedily subdued by hot air.
Of all animals in the world there are none better
endowed by nature t, endure the vicissitudes of cli-
mate than • horse. From the burning deserts of
Arabia to the coldest regions of Europe, Asia, and
America, they enjoy the most perfect health and vigour.
Why are we, then, to treat them in this temperate
clime like exotic plants? If. from the day a foal is
dropped, be is never shut up with his dam in • close
hov except during a severe frost ; if the same
practice be adopted after he is weaned till he is taken
Into the stable to receive his education, there is very
little risk of his catching cold, cough, or any disease;
all those indispositions arising from young stock being
confined in • close, unwholesome box, and then being
soddenly exposed to cold winds.
You would Mamma that during the height of summer
the horses would be out at daybreak, when the dew
makes the true pleasant to their feet, and that the
work would be over and the stables made up and horses
fed by 7 o'clock. Not at all. Instead of exercising
their horses in the cool of the morning, and taking them
out • emend time at 6•30 p.m. to walk them for an
hour, when the stables might be thoroughly cooled, the
trainers consider it a more judicious plan to commence
work at 7 in the morning, and to keep the horses out
till 10 o'clock, frequently the hottest time in the day,
before the breeze springs up. By this policy they
evade the trouble of saddling their horses • second
time.

ren clothing is useful after • long, severe race la
dead hest), and the horse is required to run a second
time; then • trainer thinks it advisable to discontinue
its use. He will walk his horse stripped in • cold wind ;
and there he stands with his coat dry and wiry, the
heat driven back to his lungs and heart. An American
trainer, covers his horse up with clothes, and moves
about till he breaks out in • profuse sweat. This
briap the enemy to the surface ; the heart and lungs
an relieved : and if the horse dries up well after he is
rubbed down he is fit to run for his life when the
English trainer's hone is suffering from internal fever.
The hot-air bath, by cleansing and opening the pores
of the skin, regions its tone and reinstates the animal
In his original purity to despise the changes of the
weather, the trainer having exerted all his ingenuity
to make him tender, belplen and susceptible. As the
hot air stimulates the action of the liver, physic will
seldom be required, and then in very small down.
When • yearling comes into the stable fat and fleshy,
instead of the giving extra slow work and keeping him
bat four hours, it saves • great deal of trouble to
physic him well. Extra physic is less troublesome
than extra work, and it is supposed to be all the sense
thing in the end.
From the 15th of March to the end of the racing
lesson the horses should be exercised twice a day and
be kept out altogether four houri, instead of the
present system, from two hours and • half to three
hours at one interval. Theyjsbould always have amen
to water, or. accoording to the American system, it
should be offered to them in small quantity six or seven
times in the course of the day. Most horses you can-
not feed too highly when they are in strong work; and
my belief is that no three horses require exactly the
same food and the same exercise. _

To • hunting establishment a bath is • most valuable
acquisition: during • long frost horses may be kept in
the most perfect condition. After • hard day's work it
Ii • most pcwerhil restorative to man and horse; and
nothing would surprise me less than to hear that the
kennel lameness in kande (which, I presume, is Amt.
metals]) can be cured by the same process.—Abridged
from Bailey's Magazine of Sports and Pastime. for
April.

BRUTAL OUTRAGR IT THINE SOLDIERS. The
county bench of magistrates at Rochester were occupied
a considerable time on Monday afternoon in the exami-
nation of three soldiers, privates in the let battalion of
the 4th Ring's Own, at Chatham, named William Clark,
25, William Oster, 33, and Thomas Stickley, 20, on •
cham of having burglariously entered the shop and
dw4ingbouse of Nicholas Lean, • grocer and general
dealer, carrying on business it New Brompton, Chatham,
and, after brutally lil.using Mrs. Lean, robbing the till
of its contents, and also stealing a quantity of tobaccs.
The prisoners, from their demeanour daring the time
they were under examination, are evidently men of the
most depraved as well as determined character, and all
of them bear the very wont characters during the time
they have been in the army. Oster, one of the prisoners,
was tried at the last &seism at Maidstone on •
charge
of having set fire to a wheatsteck on the farm o
Mr.
Gilbert, Chatham-hill, but was acquitted by the jury
from an Insufficiency of evidence. On the evening of
the eaelwer tee whirl the nc4joner, underwent their
examination before the esslssraaes they wars men
lurking about the promoter 4 shop some time after the
hour at which they ought to have been in their barracks.
Between 9 and 10 they effected an entenume, but being
met by the Trite of the prosecutor they knocked bar
down with stout 'tasks which two of them had with
them, and while one of the prisoners ransacked the
till and took some other things out of the shop, the ether
prisoners held promeintrix and prevented her giving any
alarm. Her cries, however, brought some persons to
her assistitnos, when the three prisoners immediately
made off—one of them being pursued and viptured, and
the other two apprehended In one of the low streets Mrs,
Lean waa discovered to have received such injuries
at the prisoner's bands that medical assistance had to be
obtained for her. The prisoners, who treated the matter
with the utmost indifference, were committed to take
their trial at the next Kant arises .
THI TOWN COUNCIL OF BRIGHTON •ND THE SHAY
leniar.—At • special meeting of the Brighton Town
Council, held on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Aldermen
Burrows (ex-mayor) said be weld not allow the present
opportunity to pass without congratulating the mayor
(who presided) on the successful issue of the proceed-
ings on Monday butt, which reflected great credit on
him, the chairman of the Watch Committee, and the
committee generally. One of the oldest inhabitants
had told him that he never remembered so glorious •
day in Brighton, both as regarded the weather and the
arrangements. It was a source of great satisfaction
that everything went off so well, and they (the council)
might congratulate themselves on the fact that out of
the 120,000 persons who assembled ea the race-hill on
that day there was not one who would not bear testi-
mony to the unfair report of the proceedings given in
the rime& (Hear, bear.) Mr. Lucas having coincided
in the remarks of Mr. Burrows, Mr. Cobbett, chairman
of the Watch Committee, presented a report from the
(thief officer of polies, stating that everything passed off
most satisfactorily, the level and the line of march
being kept in such a manner that there was not the
slightest obstruction. The conduct of the public WY
admirable, and there was not a person taken into cus-
tody for misconduct, exam. • London thief for picking
• gentleman's pocket, and for which he was sentenced
to six month's hard labour. The sun shone brightly
from the commencement of the proceedings till the
close, and it would be impossible for the review to
have passed off with greeter seems. The Mayor (W.
Alger, EN.), Intimated that he had invited some 50 or
GO gentlemen to attend • congratulatory meeting last
evening, and the subject dropped.

The Isle of Wight Mem Packet Company base
presented £5O. to Yrs Bartow. whose husband was
torn to Owes by falling into ths engine-room of an
14. ol Wight shames • few weeks ago.