117 



PHTHISIS. 



By phthisis — a Greek word, whose literal meaning is 

 corruption or extenuation — is intended to be expressed the 

 manifestation of certain constitutional changes, among the 

 most remarkable of which is emaciation of body, consequent 

 on the formation of tubercles and vomicse within the sub- 

 stance of the lungs. It is a form of disease to which the 

 horse is not obnoxious in an equal degree with man, 

 inflammation in the animaPs lung commonly assuming the 

 acute character, and speedily ending either in destruction of 

 life or in convalescence : whereas tubercles are for the most 

 part the off'spring of a tardy, latent, lingering form of 

 inflammatory action, such as we have described under the 

 epithet of " chronic/^ It is the opinion of some that the 

 horse is not the subject of phthisis — not liable to such a 

 disease. This question entirely depends for its solution on 

 the views entertained of the nature of phthisis. If regarded 

 as sc7^ofulous in its origin, perhaps the horse is not its 

 victim ; but if as being a tuberculous disease, then is the 

 horse^s lung known to be too subject to tuberculous forma- 

 tions to resist the fact of his being, on occasions, the subject 

 of pulmonary comsumption. Still, there comes to notice 

 the kind of tubercle necessary to constitute phthisis. Per- 

 haps the miliary tubercle is the only one considered to be 

 the genuine phthisical production. According to D^Arboval, 

 horses and oxen afi*ord more frequent examples of phthisis 

 than sheep and dogs. And there are, he says, certain 

 periods of life, in animals as well as in men, when the 

 disease is more likely to mtike its appearance; which are, 

 the several ages at which they arrive at the fourth, the 

 third, and the half of the terms of their natural lives. 

 Phthisis may be the sequel of pneumonia or pleuro-pneu- 

 monia, or even of some neglected catarrhal or bronchial 

 aftection : at other times it will come on of itself — as a dis- 

 ease sui generis — and insidiously steal on the constitution, 

 making alarming advances before we become, perhaps, ap- 



