118 DISEASES or THE LUNGS. 



prised of its existence : old horses being the most frequent 

 subjects of the former; young ones of the latter mode of 

 attack. A young horse will undergo acute pneumonia or 

 pleuro-pneumonia ; and should he not sink in the congestive 

 stage, or have his disease cut short by treatment, will die 

 during the second or third or fourth week, with his chest full 

 of water and intersected with albuminous effusions, and his 

 lungs condensed and hepatized : but an old horse, with sta- 

 mina to endure the conflict between disease and remedy, 

 will hold out while tubercles and vomicse are generating in 

 his lungs, and, in the end, die of phthisis. 



Hereditariness and predisposition. — Is the disease 

 i/^e//" hereditary ? — or only the predisposition to it? Do 

 tubercles, or the seeds or rudiments of tubercles, actually 

 exist in the lungs at the time of birth ? We seem to lack 

 proof of this being the case; whereas we have had demon- 

 stration enough of horses '^breeding the disease^^ in their 

 constitutions. There are certain "makes^^ or forms of 

 body, and there are also certain situations, in which the 

 disease is most likely to be bred, The colt predisposed to 

 phthisis is the one characterised by long legs and over- 

 growth; by narrow chest, and flat sides, and pot-belly; and 

 altogether by an appearance of weakness and unthriving- 

 ness; to which D^Arboval adds, by more spirit and eagerness 

 than is compatible with his physical development. In such 

 a constitution as inhabits a body so constructed, we know, 

 by experience, that pneumonia is apt to end in phthisis. 

 Whether the tubercles exist prior to any attack of inflam- 

 mation, or whether they form in consequence thereof, I will 

 not here venture an opinion. There are two situations 

 observed to be favorable to the generation of phthisis, 

 which are certainly in their nature very opposite : one is, 

 low, wet, cold, poor pastures, or other localities, where the 

 animals are almost constantly respiring humid air, standing 

 in wet, exposed to cold, and withal are half-starved; the 

 other situation is, living in warm and foul stables, wherein 

 the atmosphere is of that impure character which is known to 

 be offensive to the membrane lining the air-passages. I 



