The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-15
VENTILATION.

VENTILATION.
The winter season Is here and our
farmers and breeders In endeavoring to
protect their stock from the cold, are too
apt to commit fatal mistake in over
looking the Importance of ventilation.
For the health of the animal it would
prove far better to allow it to pass the
winter in the open air dependent upon
such shelter as chance might afford,
than to confine it in close stable, so
poorly ventilated as to render the air
foul and freighted with poisonous mat
ter. The subject of ventilation Is so
poorly understood that we often find the
most valuable animals suffering the
greatest from it. If it is horse, the
groom endeavOrs to secure smooth and
glossy coat by keeping the heat Of the
stable at a high temperature. and by
excluding every cold breath of air. AS
influence, but it is excluded because it
has tendency to lower the tempera-
ture. The animal, under such manage.
ment, ia forced tn breathe an atmosphere
surcharged with the carbonic acid gas
emitted from the lungs of the horses in
the stable, in addition to the effects pro-
duced by the presence of ammonia from
accomplishing matter. The health of
the animal is seriously damaged by the
obnoxious atmosphere, and his whole
system is 80 debilitated that he is una
BILE to meet exposure and stand fatigue.
And investigation has established the
fact that it is to such causes as
these the diseases of the lungs are
traced which affect so many animals.
Youatt pertinently remarks 1.-THE
temperature of the stable should never
in winter exceed ten degrees above that
of the external air, and during the rest
of the year should be as similar to il as
possible" And again 1.-THE return to
hot stable Is quite as dangerous as q
change from heated atmosphere to a
cold and biting air. Many horse that
has travelled without injury over bleak
country, has been suddenly seized with
Inflammation and fever, when he has
Immediately at the end of his journey,
been surrounded with heated aud foul
air. To the unnatural heat of the
stable we trace the origin of majority
of the dreadful maladies that every year
carries off SO many valuable animals.
TO insure health we must have a regu-
lar ventilation of our stables. The air
must he pure and incapable in impart-
ing obnoxious gases and poisonous va
pors to the lungs. And to a proper care
for ventilation we must enjOin cleanli-
ness. The former, however, is of far
more importance than tho latter, for
with an ample circulation of air, the
atmosphere never becomes unhealthy to
fatal degree by the fumes arising
from matter in state of decomposition.
But imperfect ventilation is not confined
J. al ~ nj fr,r TIM oxaI,,oi.yo an
of horses. The bovine species also suffer
that warmth, quiet and an absence of
light, are conducive to the rapid growth
and development of the stall-fed OK or
COW, yet in adhering to this mode OF
treatment, too many farmers and breed
ers overlook the importance Of ventila-
ton, and the animals fail to thrive in the
close and impure atmosphere. The lungs
are weakened, and the system becomes
unhealthy and debilitated. The impure
air in which stall-fed animals frequent
ly are kept confined, is certain death to
the smaller animals, as well as to the
diminutive tribes of birds. DR.. Arnott
asserts, "it is well known that a Canary
bird suspended near the top of cur
tained bedstead in which people have
slept, will generally, owing to the i'm
purity of the air, be found dead in. the
morning; and small, close rooms in the
habitatiOns of the poor, are sometimes rs
i'll ventilated as the curtained bedstead."
In the year 1884, the Council of France
In their investigations of the Epzootic,
a chronic disease which prevailed around
Paris at the time, learned that it was
produced by the severe regimen that
the cows were required to undergo
They were kept part of the year in
close stables, where the vitiated air re-
newed itself with extreme difficulty, and
where the heat was almost suffocating
at times. In the summer season they
were suddenly transferred to the open
pasture, thus going from a hot and
burning atmosphere to the continued
variations Of the external air. Such an
alteration Of food, and of heat and cold,
was injurious to strong degree, and it
operated Us powerful cause of disease.
II the stables had been kept thoroughly
ventilated, the change from the stable
to the pasture wolad not have proved
disastrous, and the case furnishes q
strong argument for the free circulation
of pure air. In affordinga means for
the extraction or removal of foul air
from q walled enclosure, the ventilators
HuuSo Always VIC pioSSu US near Tile UOD
of the ceiling as possible. The foul air
must escape from the top, as the car
bonic gas coming from the lungs, COM
bined with heat and moisture, is lighter
than common mir, therefore, instead
of subsiding to he lowest portion of
the interior, itFtendency IS upward.
It is impossible to extract foul air from
a building, unless we admit an ample
supply of pure air to expel the vitiated
by It's force of entrance. As the impure
atmosphere is expelled at the top of the
building the fresh air must be admitted
from the bottom. 1t Is generally best to
make the apertures in the walls, close
to the floor, for the purpose OF admitting
this requisite supply. When stables are
80 constructed that fresh air can be free
ly admitted and foul air readily with
drawn, the doors and windows may be
made as close and tight as possible. The
usual allowance Of air breathed by an
adult person is about four hundred cubic
inches per minute. Horses and cows |
require at least three times this amount. |
We make the following extract from