514 BROKEN WIND. 



as sufferers during life have yielded no uniform results. 

 Changes of pulmonic structure, the result of inflammatory 

 action, chronic or acute — because these have occasionally been 

 encountered in certain cases of broken- wind — have been laid 

 hold of and regarded as a fruitful source of the disease, as 

 represented, it is believed, by the peculiar dyspnoea. Others, 

 again, have attempted to explain both the disturbed functional 

 activity represented by the spasmodic expiration and the most 

 frequently occurring pulmonic lesion, emphysema, by refer- 

 ence to simple mechanical obstruction to the movements of 

 the abdominal muscles, associated with defective muscular 

 power. 



Probably the theories of the pathology of this disease, or, if 

 we choose to call them, the explanations of the mode in which 

 the various morbid phenomena — the exhibition of which con- 

 stitutes, to the majority, all that is known of the condition — 

 are produced which have attracted and still retain the larger 

 amount of support, may be briefly stated as — (1) That which 

 ascribes all the morbid phenomena directly to structural pul- 

 monic change, chiefly emphysema ; (2) That which attributes 

 these to perverted innervation. 



1. The minute tissue-changes of the pulmonic structures, 

 the existence of which have been taken as explanatory of the 

 diagnostic features of broken-wind, are emphysema of the 

 lung-tissue, interlobular or vesicular, or both. The former of 

 these conditions consists in the presence of air in the meshes 

 of the delicate connective-tissue existing between the pul- 

 monary lobules and the minute air-cells ; the latter is believed 

 to consist in the dilatation of the ultimate air-cells with air, 

 or the distension of contiguous air-cells with rupture of their 

 intervening septa, and consequent union of two or more in a 

 common cavity. 



In considering the bearing which these alterations of inti- 

 mate lung-tissue have in explaining the nature of this disease, 

 there are certain questions which demand from us a considera- 

 tion and an answer. It is needful that we determine whether 

 these emphysematous conditions are invariably present in the 

 lungs of all animals affected with broken-wind ; and if so, 

 whether this textural change in its extent bears a direct rela- 

 tion to the severity of the symptoms exhibited during life; 



