l«4 BRONCHITIS. 



cleared away, and no small portion of chloride of lime used in 

 washing the animal, and particularly his ulcers. It mi^rht with 

 jreat propriety be administered internally, while the stable, an^' 

 everything that belonged to the patient, should undergo a careful 

 ablution with the same powerful disinfectant. 



BRONCHITIS. 



This is not generally a primary disease. That inflammation 

 of the superior respiratory passages, constituting catarrh, gradu- 

 ally creeps downwards and involves the larynx and the trachea, 

 and at length, possibly, the farthest and the minutest ramifica- 

 tions of the air-tubes. When it is found to be thus advancing, 

 its progress should be carefully watched by the assistance of 

 auscultation. The distant murmur of the healthy lung cannot 

 be mistaken, nor the crepitating (crackling) sound of pneu 

 monia ; and in bronchitis the blood may be heard filtering or 

 breaking through the divisions of the lobes, and accounting for 

 that congestion or filling of the cells with mucus and blood, 

 which is found after intense inflammation. Inflammation pre- 

 cedes this increased discharge of mucus. Even that may be 

 detected. The inflamed merabrane is thickened and tense. It 

 assumes an almost cartilaginous structure, and the murmur is 

 not only louder, but has a kind of snoring sound. Some have 

 imagined that a sound like a metallic ring is mingled with it ; 

 but this is never very distinct. 



The interrupted whizzing sound has often and clearly indicated 

 a case of bronchitis, and there are many corroborative symptoms 

 which should be regarded. The variable temperature of the 

 extremities will be an important guide — not deathly cold as in 

 pneumonia, nor of increased temperature, as often in catarrh, 

 but with a tendency to coldness, yet this varying much. The 

 pulse will assist the diagnosis — more rapid than in catarrh, 

 much more so than in the early stage of pneumonia : not so 

 hard as in pleurisy, more so than in catarrh, and much more so 

 than in pneumonia. The respiration should next be examined, 

 abundantly more rapid than in catarrh, pneumonia, or pleurisy ; 

 generally as rapid and often more so than the pulse, and accom- 

 panied by a wheezing sound, heard at some distance. Mr. Per- 

 civall relates a case in which the respiration was more than one 

 hundred in a minute. 



In addition to these clearly characteristic symptoms, will be 

 observed a haggard countenance, to which the anxious look of 

 the horse laboring under inflammation of the lungs cannot for 

 a moment be compared ; also an evident dread of suffocation 

 expressed, not by inability to move, as in pneumonia, but fje 



