22 NAVII^ ON THE HOKSE. 



sounds of the lungs are not natural, and by carefully applying 

 the ear to the side it may be possible to detect the presence of 

 water in the chest ; the pulse is irregular, and the horse obsti- 

 nately persists in standing up, both day and night. After a 

 number of days, or sometimes weeks, the horse is again seized 

 with rigors, or shivering, and he is thought to have relapsed, or 

 taken another attack of lang fever, but very soon dies, despite 

 of all efforts for his relief. 



Inflammation of the lungs, also, frequently terminates in what 

 is called thick-wind. 



Considerable irritation of the lining membrane of the air- 

 cells may remain after an attack of lung fever, and produce a 

 chronic cough. The appearances of the lungs, etc., after death by 

 lung fever, deserve notice. Very often the whole of the lungs 

 will appear as one mass of blackness, every trace of their fine 

 structure being destroyed, and the lungs are said to be perfectly 

 rotten. Many persons have been misled by this appearance of 

 the lungs, and supposed that the horse must have been long 

 diseased. This is far from the fact. It results from the lungs 

 becoming powerfully congested or engorged with blood. And 

 this is far more likely to be the case when the disease has run 

 its course rapidly. The adhesion or gluing of the lungs to the 

 chest, which some take, through ignorance, as evidence of long- 

 standing disease, Mr. Percival says he "has known to be pro 

 duced in twenty-four hours." In some cases, where the inflam- 

 mation has been very violent, but confined to only part of the 

 lung, mortification or gangrene may take place a few hours, or 

 longer, before death. It will be indicated by the peculiar of- 

 fensiveness of the breath. This does not show disease of long- 

 standing, but ratlier rapid and violent inflammation. 



When the case has terminated in dropsy of the chest, the 

 cavity of the chest will be found filled with water, which had 

 accumulated to such an extent as to destroy the action of the 

 lungs and heart and produce suffocation. 



Causes. — Nearly all the causes that produce inflammation of 



