OF FARRIERY. 



217 



ON INFLAMMATION OF THE 

 LUNGS. 



The disease, inflammation of the lungs, is 

 one of the greatest importance the veterinarian 

 has to contend with ; it proving so frequently 

 fatal. The disease formerly was not under- 

 stood by the older farriers, and consequently, 

 they administered hot stimulating drugs, by 

 way as they conceived of driving the disorder 

 away, which was generally the case — in death, 

 until the establishment of the present Royal 

 Veterinary College, and the indefatigable 

 studies and means of its highly respected and 

 talented Professor. The disease is now un- 

 derstood, and thousands of Horses that would 

 have been doomed to the dog-kennel, have 

 lived to follow the chace ; saying nothing of 

 the numerous roadsters and hacks, as well as 

 draught-horses, that have lived double their 

 time, from the well known knowledge and 

 experience that have been dilfused through 

 the veterinary world within the last thirty 

 years. However, in returning to my subject 

 of inflammation of the lungs, there is a disease 

 called pleurisy in the human subject; and 

 this disease, consisting in an inflammation of 

 the thin membrane covering the substance of 

 the lungs, and being so intimately connected 

 with the substance of the lungs, such as 

 covering it all over, and the cavity of the 

 chest, it has been thought to have been a 

 disease of itself in the Horse ; but such is not 

 the case. The pleura of the Horse is seldom, 

 or never the situation of disease. If the pleura 

 should be diseased in the Horse, it is in con- 

 nection with the substance of the lungs. 

 Whenever the blood is prevented from circu- 

 lating freely through the lungs, it is so im- 

 portant an organ, that it becomes the origin 



of several diseases. There is a somethinof 

 differing from the common air in the atmos- 

 phere exhaled from the lungs. This, at 

 present, is an undetected poison, and will 

 produce disease. After what I have said, 

 the alteration of the structure of this import- 

 ant organ of Nature, shall occupy a little of 

 our time. 



Disease, it is well known, is not always a 

 punishment, but is intended by Nature as a pro- 

 cess to restore the animal economy ; and Nature 

 provides many more forces than one, to remove 

 a portion of all kind of animals from the face of 

 the earth periodically; for, if we were not 

 thinned by disease, we should with numbers 

 make each other uncomfortable ; and thus, 

 numbers are diminished by a poison being 

 created. This law of numbers destroying: each 

 other, rules the vegetable kingdom also, which 

 you have doubtless often seen in a turnip field. 

 But, as Horses are not very numerous on this 

 island, their present diseases must be pro- 

 duced from art ; and so we find them become 

 subject to diseases on coming under artificial 

 treatment, and no disease more so, tha-n in- 

 flammation of the lungs. 



Many persons might say ; and why is this ? 

 The answer I give is simply this ; because 

 Nature in her good gifts has supplied food for 

 the lungs of animals of all descriptions, which 

 we deprive them of; this food being the 

 pure atmosphere, for which we substitute 

 impure air, arising from close unventilated 

 stables, the Horse's own dung and urine, bad 

 stable management, &c. &c. Having described 

 the nature of inflammation of the lungs. I shall 

 proceed to the symptoms. 



Of the symptoms of inflammation of the 

 lungs, it is necessary to guard the practitioner 

 against mistaking j3tt«i<moma, or inflaminalion 



3 I 



