CONTROVERSY CONCERNING AIR CELLS. 83 



atter, as re^^ards the symptom of respiration just spoken of, for each writei 

 «ras right in his separate position: as they disagree as to what constitutes 

 broken wind, so they could not of course agree as to the symptoms. See 

 pages 150, 160, of White's first volume. This author also disorders his own 

 positions at the same place, in two other instances, which I should not have 

 noticed, but for his tart rebuke of R. Lawrence for attributing the terra 

 broken wind to the thickening of the membranes. In this view of the case, 

 it will be seen, I certainly can not agree with this very clear-headed veterina- 

 rian; but I do not therefore, harshly refute a gentleman and scholar for not 

 agreeing with me upon a simple term of science: it was this unamiable at- 

 tachment to trifles tliat so long impeded the progress of chemical knowledge, 

 until the plain-speaking Davy, Nicholson, Park, and Paris, came into voiiue, 

 and drove Lavoisier from his prostrate coterie,— Dickson was put to silence, 

 and Fourcroy's reveries were laid in the dust of oblivion. 



White says, " The lungs of broken winded horses that I have examined have 

 generally been unusually large, with numerous air-bladders on the surface." p. 

 IGO. Yet, in the next page, he opens a broken winded subject, and says, " The 

 lungs were lighter [meaning less] than usual, and without the air-bladders, 

 contrary to the state Mr. Lawrence describes." What Lawrence had snid 

 was this: " The most common appearance of the lungs in broken winde<i 

 horses is a general thickening of their substance, by which their elasticity is 

 in a great measure destroyed, and their weight (i. e. size) specifically increased. 

 On this account air is received into the lungs with difficulty, but its expulsion 

 is not so difficult. Thus, in broken winded horses, inspiration is very slow, 

 expiration sudden and rapid, as n)ay be seen by the flanks returning with a 

 jerk." (p. 123, octavo edition.) And he is correct as to these two motions 

 accompanying the thickened membrane or substance of the Uings; only 1 

 should have termed the disorder thick wind, and not broken wind, when all 

 would have coincided with White's statement, barring his own self-contra- 

 diction as to the size of the lungs, which Lawrence had mistaken for weight, 

 and which had met with the counter assertion of being " specifically lighter." 

 On this point of their dispute, however, neither the one nor the otiier could 

 possibly Arnoir aught with requisite certainty; and I, for my part, am inclined 

 to believe, that the lungs of high-bred horses are specifically lighter than those 

 of the cart breed, saving that the whole organs of respiration are much less 

 muscular in the first kind than in those of the latter, the skirt or borderof 

 the midrifi' in particular. On the other hand, the hearts of blood horses in- 

 variably run of a larger size than those of the common English horse. Vide 

 page 3^. One cause of broken wind, or rather that mainly predisposes the 

 anfmal to contract this disorder, is voracious feeding, which distends the sto- 

 mach inordinately, and for a while gives to the animal a short-lived vigour 

 and healthy appearance. This induces its proprietor to put him upon his 

 mettle, and try the extent of his powers at progression ; and as he will best 

 perform those feats upon a plentiful feed, the action of the midriff" and lungs 

 thereby becomes laboured, and the proper expansion of the lungs is impeded. 

 Heat and tension are the immediate consequence, and broken wind of one 

 or the other species is the remote consequence. Horses that eat their litter, 

 and what other hard substances they can come near, are similarly predisposed 

 io broken wind; namely, by the great distension of the stomach, and inability 

 af inspiring a sufficient quantity of air to fill the lungs, whence the iiiert cells, 

 or the portion not distended, fill up, contract, and l>ecom 3 useless, or, upon 

 sudden action and over distension, they burst at once. 



Cure there is none for broken wind, and therefore all that can be done bv 

 way of alleviating its symptoms must be effected by management, or as it If 

 more generally termed, by 



