THE NERVES. RESPIRATION. THE LUNGS. %\ 



for persons and places, as every one knows ; he must, therefore, have percep- 

 tion, and he is kind and docile in his nature, which entitle him to a kinder 

 return from his master than he usually receives. I have often lamented that 

 he was not endowed with one more faculty, even in the smallest degree, that 

 he might distinguish hetween those who really love him, and those empirics 

 who make a profit of his sufferings ; he would then be induced, probably, to 

 kick some among them, as an example to all the rest ; and 1 never hear of one 

 of those fellows, or their employers, being unhorsed, but 1 think of retributive 

 justice. So, when the horse is girthed up unmercifully, in such a manner as 

 to obstruct his respiration, he frequently attempts to bite the operator — and, 

 "serve him right," I say. As the nerves of a horse are the seat of no dis- 

 tinct disease, 1 shall content myself with adding, that they consist of small 

 cords, white and roundish, like thread ; and are certainly the vehicles of pain, 

 which vibrates from one to the other, pleasurable sensations l)eing conveyed 

 by the same means to the sensorium, or brain.* The nerves a'-e closely con- 

 nected with the circulation, and with the brain, where they originate. 



31. Respiration is the act of drawing in the air by the expansion of the 

 lungs, the cells whereof thereby become filled to their utmost, the ribs are dis- 

 tended, and the midriff pressed back upon the stomach, liver, &c. This is in- 

 spiration ; the expulsion of the air, forming the re-action, being termed expira- 

 tion ; both together constitute what we call breathing or respiration, and the 

 matter was before introduced (in section 8,) when I noticed that powerful 

 auxiliary of this function — the midriff. Now, as I have always attached much 

 importance to the act of respiration, seeing its close connexion with the f(;r- 

 mation of blood, and the almost constant state of disease in which are found 

 the organs that contribute to this great function of animal life, I shall enter 

 into more minute particulars respecting these, than 1 have thought necessary 

 for any of the preceding organs. By this course, the reader will be enabled 

 to form more distinct notions respecting the forming and " circulation of the 

 blood," and its concomitant, the formation oi chyle, commonly called " the di- 

 gestive powers" — both of them functions most essential to health ; but un- 

 happily, both together become, by contravention of those powers, the fruitful 

 source of numberless ills, we thence call constitutional or bodily disease, as 

 fever, abscess, farcy, &c. To this point tends all that 1 have hitherto said con- 

 cerning the inside of the horse; and the inquirer after veterinary knowledge 

 will find his labour in studying this portion of it amply repaid, by the just prin- 

 ciples upon which he will subsequently conduct his practice. 



33. The LUNGS, or lights, are two well-known spongy bodies (called lobes), 

 having at their conjunction a small lobe nearer to where the pipe enters that is 

 to inflate them. At the same place is fastened the ends of a thin membrane, oi 

 rather two membranes, that enclose each one of the lobes : this membrane is 

 termed the pleura, and seems designed to admit of one lobe performing its 

 functions whenever the other may at any time be diseased Between the two 



* Conscience (consciousness), which agitates the nerves by the faculty of thinking, when ap- 

 plied to the evils that are in the world, does sometimes caase the accession of fever to those deli 

 Crtte organs in human nature ; but brute animals being denied those jwwers (or of memory, 

 except as regards tlie means of prolonging life) are little likely to contract " nervous fever;" 

 although that state of fretfulness some high-bred horses are prone to, partake of a good many 

 eyinptomsof the human ailment, and may be cured by the same means. Sedatives, quiet, anc' 

 a cooling regimen are those means. The loose stable recommended by John Lawrence, and 

 cow much adopted, contributes much to sooth the fretful horse. When the same fretfulnesB 

 or despondency comes over a horse, one of condition, or whose condition has been recerjtlv t«- 

 duced he acquires slow fever. See what is said under this head in Book IL 



