BRONCHITIS. 97 



having been found pent up in the air-cells while the tubes 

 were in a state of obliteration^ and assuming that sort of 

 aspect which tubercles and vomicae are known to give to the 

 lungs, IMr. Stokes^ has ingeniously suggested that this "will 

 go far to clear up controversy about the nature and origin of 

 tubercles." Horses that have died of acute attacks of bron- 

 chitis, young, and otherwise healthy, have exhibited nothing 

 on dissection save a turgescent and thickened condition of 

 the bronchial membrane, with the tubes so filled with frothy 

 mucous secretions as to give rise to the belief that the ani- 

 mal had been actually choked by it, or, as Dr. Elliotson has 

 significantly expressed it, " drowned inwardly by mucus."' 



The TREATMENT of brouchitis must of course, in a disease so 

 various and versatile, vary and even differ with the subject, 

 the violence, and the stage of the malady we have to treat. 

 There was a time when this disease, confounded with other 

 afi'ections of the lung under '^ Inflammation," would have 

 shared the ordinary treatment of bloodletting and rowelling, 

 &c. Since the distinction, however, between the membranous 

 and the parenchymatous or vascular disease, as well as from 

 experience, we have learnt that horses, young ones in par- 

 ticular, do best when submitted to a comparatively mild and 

 soothing mode of treatment. The encouragement of the flux 

 from the nose which Nature herself has set up as a sort of 

 issue or outlet for the disease, must constitute a very impor- 

 tant consideration. Conducting a stream of vapour from 

 scalded bran, or hay, up the nasal passages by means of a sort 

 of linen tubular conductor — when the passages are not too 

 irritable to bear it — afibrds great relief: if the linen tube 

 cannot be endured, perhaps the steam rising from an open tub 

 or pail, containing the steaming material, may be borne; 

 and while this is being done, by having a body of water 

 in the tub over which the horse is holding his nose, the 

 throat may be being fomented. No time ought to be lost 

 in opening the bowels moderately, either by clyster, or the 

 exhibition of an aperient, consisting of not more than two or 



' In his * Treatise on Diseases of tlie Chest.' 

 3 Dr. Elliotson's ' Lectures.' • 



II. 7 



