BROKEN-WIND. 195 



pages are principally designed. The farmer's horse is the broKen-winded 

 horse, because that on which he is fed is bulky, and too often selected on 

 account of its cheapness ; because there is little regularity in the .nanage- 

 ment of most of the farmers' stables, or the work of his teams ; and because 

 after many an hour's fasting the horses are often suffered to gorge them- 

 selves with this bulky food ; and then, with the stomach pressing upon the 

 lungs, and almost impeding ordinary respiration, they are put again to work, 

 and sometimes to that which requires considerable exertion. 



A profitable lesson may be learned from this statement. The farmer 

 perhaps may contrive to give his horses a little more corn, and a little less 

 hay, and straw, and chaff, without much additional expense ; he may con- 

 trive, too, to shorten the period of fasting, and therefore prevent the raven- 

 ous manner in which agricultural horses often feed ; and more regularity 

 may take place between the periods of feeding and of work. We have 

 recommended the nose bag as a preventive of stomach-staggers ; we can as 

 earnestly recommend it as a preventive of broken-wind. 



This disease depends as much upon the cramped state of the lungs, from 

 the pressure of an overgorged stomach in the ordinary state of the animal, 

 as on the effects of over-exertion. The agriculturist knows that many a 

 horse becomes broken-winded in the straw-yard. There is little nutriment 

 in the provender which he there finds, and to obtain enough for the support 

 of life, he is compelled to keep the stomach constantly full, and pressing 

 upon the lungs. Some have come up from grass broken-winded that went 

 out perfectly sound. The explanation of this case is the same. The 

 stomach was habitually gorged with coarse and innutritive herbage, and 

 its pressure on the lungs cramped and confined their action, and produced 

 those violent efforts which burst some of the air-cells, and especially when 

 in their gambols in the straw-yard or the field, or sometimes being wantonly 

 driven about, the lungs were suddenly called upon to perform extraordinary 

 work. There are difficulties attending this explanation of the disease, but 

 it cannot be denied that the dissection of the horses which had broken-wind 

 has almost invariably presented these enlarged air-cells, one of which 

 would occupy the space of a great many of their natural dimensions. 



The cure of a broken-winded horse no one ever witnessed ; yet much 

 may be done in the way of palliation. The food of the animal should 

 consist of much nutriment condensed into a small compass ; the quantity 

 of oats should be increased, and that of hay proportionably diminished ; the 

 bowels should be gently relaxed by the frequent use of mashes ; the water 

 should be given sparingly through the day, although at night the thirst of 

 the animal should be fully satisfied ; and exercise should never be taken 

 when the stomach is full. It will scarcely be believed how much relief 

 these simple measures will afford to a broken-winded horse, and of how 

 much exertion he may be gradually rendered capable. Some treated on 

 this plan have even been hunted, and have acquitted themselves well in the 

 field. Carrots are very useful to the broken-winded horse, not only as 

 containing much nutriment and considerable moisture, so that less water 

 may be required, but from some property which they possess rendering 

 them beneficial in every chest aflfection. A broken-winded horse turned 

 out to grass will never improve, on account of the almost constant disten- 

 sions of the stomach ; but he may be fed on more succulent substances, as 

 turnips and mangel-wurzel, with evident advantage. They are easy of 

 digestion, and they soon pass out of the stomach. 



Medical treatment is of little avail, except that organs so violently excited 

 as the lungs of broken-winded horses frequently are, must be subject to 

 inflammation, and the difficulty of breathing in these horses is sometimes 



