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a question, whether a horse, affected by a 

 cough, under certain circumstances, shall be 

 deemed unsound. 



It is a common opinion with farriers and 

 grooms, that the lungs of a broken- winded 

 horse are too large for his chest. This, how- 

 ever, is an absurd notion ; for every anatomist 

 well knows, that the lungs of all animals com- 

 pletely fill the chest, as well in the healthy as 

 in the diseased state; leaving no space between 

 their outward surface, and the inward surface 

 of the ribs : thus they dilate and contract, fol- 

 lowing up, by their own elasticity, the action 

 of the ribs and diaphragm. 



The idea before mentioned of the lungs of 

 broken-winded horses being too large for the 

 chest, originated from their comparative ap- 

 pearance, in regard to size, with those of a 

 healthy horse, when examined after death. 

 Thus, if the chest of a healthy horse be opened 

 when dead, the air of the atmosphere rushes 

 in, and the lungs collapsing, become much 

 smaller than the cavity of the chest ; on the 

 contrary, the lungs of broken-winded horses, 

 being thickened by disease, are less elastic, and 

 consequently do not collapse so much as the 

 former;' and hence arose the comparative opi- 

 nion of their being too large for the chest. But 

 the fact is, that, notwithstanding they appear 

 (under these circumstances) larger in the dead 



