DIAGNOSIS. 1*t 



out pretending to adopt all his finely-drawn distinctions. 

 He makes a division of the different kinds of breathing, rela- 

 tively, into — 



1. Acceleration or retardation. 2. Depth of inspiration. 

 3. Difficulty of performance. 4. Modifications of these. 5. 

 Accompanying sounds or noises. 



Frequent respiration is common to all pulmonary dis- 

 eases, and to most fevers and painful irritations; quick and 

 intermittent breathing denotes sharp and colicky pains in 

 the chest or belly; slow breathing is perceived in cerebral 

 affections ; and slow and irregular, in pulmonary emphysema. 

 Deep inspirations betoken confirmed hydrothorax; short 

 ones, which constitute quick respiration, are signs of pleural 

 or peritoneal or irritative pains. 



Difficult or laborious respiration characterises acute 

 laryngitis and bronchitis, pulmonary congestion, and all those 

 cases in which obstacles in the air-passages, or other impedi- 

 ment, embarrasses the breathing. 



Unequal respiration has one inspiration deep, another 

 not. It becomes irregular where the intervals are unequal; 

 intermittent when the breath is held or suspended ; inter- 

 rupted, when that suspension takes place in the middle 

 of an inspiration or expiration ; interscinded, when suddenly 

 arrested, and converted into a convulsive action of the flanks 

 or catching of the breath. This last is present in broken 

 wind, though it is in particular characteristic of pulmonary 

 emphysema, and diseases of the heart nnd pericardium. 



Sighing respiration, — This kind of respiration, not men- 

 tioned in Delafond^s account, is one which, strictly speaking, 

 arises neither from difficulty nor pain in drawing breath, nor 

 from any pain or irritation in any particular part, but from 

 general excitement, or rather a general feeling of distress. It 

 is characterised by a sort of sighing, grunting noise, and is 

 indicative of great over-excitement with distress at the time, 

 to end iu a directly opposite state, one of depression, 

 exhaustion, and death. It is peculiar to the over-marked 

 horse. And it may be called — until we get a more appro- 

 priate name for it — sighing respiration. 



