36 DISEASES OF THE AIR-PASSAGES. 



and then, a horse is brought to me with a cough of this de- 

 scription, looking in perfect health and condition, the cough 

 seizing him only while out at exercise, or on his first leaving 

 his stable, or wlien cold water is given to him. He may 

 have had this cough for weeks or months, or even for years : 

 in the latter case, it troubling him every winter. The cough 

 may have originated in catarrh, or some inflammatory attack 

 of the air-passages or lungs, or it may not be traceable to 

 any such cause : it may be idiopathic from beginning to 

 end^ or it may become idiopathic after being for a time 

 sympathetic. The probable seat of this cough is the larjnx ; 

 I believe it to be often confined to the rima-glottidis. Any 

 tumour pressing on this part might occasion it. In the 

 absence of this, it is probably owing to congestion or thick- 

 ening or other alteration of the membrane, and consequent 

 morbid irritabiUty of it. D'Arboval describes the cough of 

 pulmonarj^ consumption as small, short, feeble, and accom- 

 panied with a sort of wheezing. 



The hollow cough. — A deep sepulchral sort of sound, 

 something of a compound between a cough and a groan, 

 emitted, according to the sensation the sound conveys, from 

 the very inmost recesses of the air-passages. So peculiar is 

 the sound of this oough, that, being once heard, it is not 

 likely to be forgotten. Its seat, I believe to be the wind- 

 pipe, or some of the larger bronchi. I have known 

 several horses having it without its affecting their health 

 at all. There was one lately in our regiment who regularly 

 did his duty, and seemed no otherwise inconvenienced by it 

 than at the time it was on him. In general it exists but at 

 particular seasons. 



Intermittent cough is the name given to those fits 

 of coughing with which horses are in the habit of being 

 seized on a sudden, and oftener at work than during repose. 

 The cough is a dry, hacking, half-suppressed one, is repeated 

 several times in quick succession, and does not return again 

 for some considerable interval. It is a cough that may 

 endure a very long time. Delafond says it proceeds from 

 pulmonary emphysema. 



