288 Ve/erinary Medicine. 



purpose, for such horses are always intolerably thirsty and if al- 

 lowed to regale themselves at the nearest watering trough, the 

 charm is broken, the double lift returns and with it all the 

 symptoms of the malady. 



A brutal practice existed among ancient farriers, of making an 

 artificial opening into the rectum to allow the exit of the flatus 

 upon which they conceived the disease to depend. This was 

 effected either by cutting through the .sphinctor ani with a knife 

 or by making a new opening to one side of it with a red hot iron. 

 According to Ferguson this has been improved upon by the 

 modern Irish jockey, in the case of broken-winded mares. With 

 the knife an artificial communication is made between the rectum 

 and the vagina, of sufficient size to insure that it will remain open 

 and large enough to allow pellets of dung to pass into the vagina. 

 The double lifting of the flank forces the fseces through this arti- 

 ficial opening, and to avoid the inconvenience of their presence in 

 the vagina the animal carefully refrains from this action. This 

 orifice further allows the free escape of anj' gases generated 

 in the rectum and thus materially relieves the flatulence. Fer- 

 guson says he has seen broken-winded mares that have been 

 operated on in this manner, that breathed so freely that even pro- 

 fessional men have failed to detect the affection. 



In all cases of broken wind, no matter how masked there will 

 be manifest, on slight exertion, a permanent dilatation of the no.s- 

 trils — i.e., alike in inspiration and expiration, — and when any 

 such suspicious symptom is seen the horse .should be carefully 

 examined, especially the state of his lungs as ascertained by aus- 

 cultation and percussion, his breathing after he has freely partaken 

 of water and hay, and, if there is suspicion of drugging, after he 

 has stood over night in a hot stable plentifully supplied with both 

 hay and water. 



It should be borne in mind that mares advanced in pregnancy 

 often show no double action of the flank though decidedly broken 

 winded. 



