THICK-WIND. 195 



or continued speed. The inspirations and the expirations are 

 shorter, as well as more violent ; the air must be more rapidly 

 admitted, and more thoroughly pressed out ; and this is accom- 

 panied by a peculiar sound that can rarely be mistaken. 



The inflammatory stage of the disease having passed, the horse 

 is restored to comparative health, but in a thick-icinded state. 

 Auscultation will indicate the amount of the hepatization, and it 

 will enable us to distinguish between this cause of thick-wind 

 and that thickening of the air-passages which sometimes results 

 from bronchitis. 



Of the treatment, little can be said. We know not by what 

 means we can excite the absorbents to take up the sohd organ- 

 ized mass of hepatization, or restore the membrane of the cells, 

 and the minute vessels ramifying over them, now confounded 

 and lost. We have a somewhat better chance, and yet not much, 

 in removing the thickening of the membrane, for counter-irritants, 

 extensively and perseveringly applied to the external parietes of 

 the chest, may do something. If thick- wind immediately fol- 

 lowed bronchitis, it would certainly be justifiable practice to blis- 

 ter the brisket and sides, and that repeatedly ; and to administer 

 purgatives, if we dared, or diuretics, more effectual than the pur- 

 gatives, and always safe. 



Our attention must be principally confined to diet and man- 

 agement. A thick- winded horse should have his full proportion, 

 or rather more than liis proportion of grain, and a diminished 

 quantity of less nutritious food, in order that the stomach may 

 never be overloaded, and press upon the diaphragm, and so upon 

 the lungs, and increase the labor of these already over- worked 

 organs. Particular care should be taken that the horse is not 

 worked immediately after a full meal. The overcoming of the 

 pressure and weight of the stomach, will be a serious addition to 

 the extra work which the lungs already have to perform from 

 their altered structure. . 



Thick-wind may be to some extent iKilliated by daily exer 

 cising the horse to the fair extent of liis power, and without seri- 

 ously distressing him. 



Thick-wind, however, is not always the consequence of disease. 

 There are certain cloddy, round-chested horses, that are naturall) 

 thick-winded, at least to a certain extent. They are capable of 

 that slow exertion for which nature designed them, but they art 

 immediately distressed if put a little out of their usual pace. A 

 circular chest, whether the horse is large or small, indicates thick 

 wind. 



