ASTHMA. 467 



difficult and peculiar Lrcatliing ; the inspiratory movement is 

 performed with ease, the expiratory by two apparent efforts. 

 The difficulty in breathing is constant, but is liable to remis- 

 sions and severe exacerbations. A peculiar cough, called " the 

 broken- winded cough," is a constant symptom; indigestion and 

 flatulence aggravate the dyspnoea. 



Etiology. — The causes of broken wind, as laid down by writers, 

 are very numerous and complicated. Youatt says that emphy- 

 sema of the lungs is present in almost every case that he has 

 examined. Haycock ascribed the disease to hepatization and 

 induration of a portion of one or both lungs, chronic disease of the 

 digestive organs, or of the nerves of the respiratory apparatus, 

 rupture of the diaphragm, and inflammation of a low subacute 

 character of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes and 

 minute air cells. Gibson attributed it to enlargement of the con- 

 tents of the chest. Dr. Lower supposed that it arose from rupture 

 of the diaphragmatic nerve. The Professors of the Veterinary 

 College at Lyons (1826), after performing a variety of experi- 

 ments, were led to conclude that the clyspucea arose from a 

 reversed situation of the diaphragm, caused by nervous derange- 

 ment. M. Godine, Jun., professor at Alfort, considered it as a 

 natural defect iii the normal and relative proportions of the 

 riglit and left side of the heart. M. Demussy, in a Memoir to 

 the Eoyal Society of Agriculture of Paris (1823), affirms that by 

 direct observation he discovered that those districts of France 

 where hay or other dry food is most used, are subject in u 

 peculiar degree to broken wind among their horses. 



Coleman said it originated in mechanical ruj)ture of the air 

 cells. Blaine supposed it arose from emphysema of the lungs, 

 due to the formation of gases within the lung tissue. 



To give my own opinion, I have no hesitation in asserting 

 that broken wind is generally due to improper food, more 

 particularly to bad, musty, or coarse hay, containing a large 

 quantity of woody fibre, from being allowed to become too ripe 

 before being cut, and to a superabundant allowance of hay of any 

 kind, with a deficient supply of corn. 



Mr. Anderson, V.S., Glasgow, has very carefully investigated 

 the causes of broken wind, and has been led to conclude that in 

 most instances it is due to habitual over-loading of the stomach 

 witli coarse, indigestible food ; in some cases the stomach has 



