BROKEN WIND. 221 



examining the matter a little more atten- 

 tively, two A^ery probable reasons may be 

 adduced, tending to lead us to a much more 

 RATIONAL opinion of the cause. 



For instance, whether horses who have been 

 in the habit of yk// or /bw/ feeding, with a 

 very trifling portion of exercise, and with- 

 out any internal cleansing from evacuations, 

 compulsively obtained hy purgatives or diure- 

 tics, may not constantly engender a quantity 

 oi viscid, tough, phlegynatic matter; which ac- 

 cumulating by slow degrees may so clog and 

 fill up some of that infinity of minute pas- 

 sages with which the lungs are known to 

 abound, as probably to obstruct the air ves- 

 sels in their necessary expansion for the 

 office of respiration. And whether this very 

 probable obstruction, or partial suppression, 

 may not in sudden, hasty, and long-con- 

 tinued exertions, rupture ^others, and by 

 such local deficiency affect the elasticity of the 

 whele? The probability, and indeed great 

 appearance of this progress, has ever in- 

 fluenced me most forcibly to believe that 

 such obstructions once formed, the evil ac- 

 cumulates, till a multiplicity of the vessels 



