BKONCHITIS. 607 



Four of tlie herd became miicli worse tlian tlie rest , one died, 

 and the other three were slaughtered. In all of them the 

 bronchial tubes were filled with ingesta, ejected into the fauces 

 during violent fits of coughing. Again, in several specimens of 

 the lungs of American cattle slaughtered at Liverpool, supposed 

 to be affected with pleuro-pueumonia, food was found in the 

 bronchi. Is it not possible that during a rough voyage cattle 

 may suffer to some extent from sea-sickness, and even vomition, 

 and that the vomited matters may gain access into the trachea 

 and bronchi ? In others of the condemned American cattle the 

 irritation w^as associated with the presence of filaria in the 

 bronchi. Both the ingesta and the parasites were present only 

 in a minority of the diseased lungs examined, and could there- 

 fore be only looked upon as accidental concomitants. 



Food sometimes gains access into the trachea in the course 

 of dissolution, or even after death, particularly if the rumen be 

 rather fuU of moist food ; it will then be found in the greatest 

 abundance in the trachea and larger bronchi, whereas in those 

 instances in which it has been in the tubes for some time 

 before death, the food will often have disappeared from the 

 larger into the smaller tubes and air cells. 



I have witnessed one case of fatal bronchitis in the horse, due 

 to the entrance of vomited ingesta into the bronchi. Some 

 days prior to its death fifteen minims of Fleming's tincture 

 of aconite had been administered ; this brought on attempts at 

 vomition and great distress. The animal's respiration continued 

 very highly accelerated after the effects of the aconite had 

 passed off, and continued until the animal died. A jjost mortem 

 examination revealed the fact that vomition had occurred, and 

 that the small quantity of food thus expelled had entered the 

 larynx, and gained access to the bronchi. 



ACUTE BEONCHITIS. 



Symptoms. — Bronchitis consists of congestion of the bronchial 

 tissues, associated at first with dryness, narrowing, and rigidity, 

 and subsequently moisture, dilatation, and relaxation of the tubes. 



Owing to these changes, the vibrating sounds caused by the 

 passage of air through the inflamed bronchi undergo variations, 

 which indicate pretty clearly the dry or moist condition of the 

 parts, or, as some term it, the dry or moist catarrh. 



