DISEASES OF THE THORACIC ORGANS 537 



worth treatment. Many so-called cures were never open joints at all, but 

 the persons treating them have mistaken the saffron-coloured discharge 

 from an open bursa for the inflamed synovia of the joint. 



The knee is sometimes punctured by a thorn in hunting, causing great 

 pain and lameness. If it can be felt externally it is well to cut down 

 upon it and remove it ; but groping in the dark with the knife among 

 important tendons in front of the knee is not on any account to be 

 attempted. The knee should be well fomented five or six times a day, 

 until the swelling, if there is any, subsides, and, in process of time, the 

 thorn will either show its base, or it will gradually free itself from its 

 attachments and lie beneath the skin, from which position it may be safely 

 extracted with the knife or forceps. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



DISEASES OF THE THORACIC ORGANS AND THEIR APPENDAGES 



GENERAL REJIARKS — CATARRH OR COLD — INFLUENZA — BRONCHITIS — CHRONIC COUGH 

 - — LARYNGITIS, R0.4R1NG, WHISTLING, ETC. — PNEUMONIA AND CONGESTION OF THE 

 LUNGS — PLEURISY — BROKEN WIND — THICK WIND — SPASM OF THE DIAPHRAGM 

 DISEASES OF THE HEART — DISEASES OF THE BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE CHEST AND NOSE. 



GENERAL REMARKS 



The isiportance of soundness in the resjiiratory apparatus is so fully 

 recognized, that in common parlance it is put before the organs of locomotion, 

 a popular expression being " sound in wind and limb." It is true that good 

 wind is useless without legs ; but the diseases of the latter are known to be 

 more under control than those of the chest, and hence it is, perhaps, tliat 

 the wind is so carefully scrutinized by all purchasers of horses. There is, 

 also, much greater difficulty in ascertaining the condition of the lungs and 

 their appendages, and the ordinary observer can only judge of them by an 

 absolute trial ; while the state of the legs may be seen and felt, and that of 

 the feet can be tolerably well ascertained by a very short run upon hard 

 ground. So, also, with the acute diseases of these parts ; while the legs and 

 feet manifest the slightest inflammation going on in them by swelling and 

 lieat, the air-passages may be undergoing slow but sure destruction, without 

 giving out any sign that can be detected by any one but the practised 

 veterinarian. In most of the diseases of the chest there is disturbance of 

 the breathing, even during a state of rest ; but in some of them, as in roar- 

 ing, for instance, no such evidence is aff"orded, and the disease can only be 

 detected by an examination during, or immediately after, a severe gallop. 

 Roarers will often grunt when threatened with a stick, but it is nob a reliable 

 test. 



