BROKEN-WIND. 157 



cosities, has, by Rodet, been placed in the first rank 

 among the causes of broken-wind; while Delafond regards 

 it as but of secondary importance. It is conceived to 

 occasion broken-wind by the violent fits of coughing ac- 

 companying it. The air violently forced out, meeting 

 with (mucous) obstruction in the passages, by the re-action 

 of its impulsive force, is driven back into the small bronchi 

 and air-cells, which may thereby become dilated, or even 

 ruptured. This double result has been observed by Laen- 

 nec, and adopted by Godine, Rodet, and Delafond. It is 

 possible, also, that, through ulceration and perforation of 

 the bronchial membrane, air might get admission and create 

 an inter-lobular pulmonary emphysema. All these explica- 

 tions, however, fall to the ground in cases wherein no em- 

 physema has been observable ; of which there are three 

 reported by Rodet. 



Nervous influence. — This, which originated with 

 Dupuy, is, in D^Arboval^s estimation, the most accurate 

 opinion of any. Some abnormal condition, but little known, 

 hardly suspected even, of the pulmonary nerves, preceded 

 by such circumstances as in connexion either with the lung, 

 the stomach, or other part, or through sympathy, are ca- 

 pable of altering the structure of these nerves, or of 

 influencing their functions. Both Dupuytren and Dupuy 

 have remarked symptoms resembling those of broken-wind in 

 cases of compression or section of the pneumogastric nerves. 



Lesion of the diaphragm. — Girard, jun., in 1822, 

 remarked symptoms of broken-wind in a horse whose dis- 

 section afterwards shewed that a portion of omentum had 

 insinuated itself through an opening in the diaphragm into 

 the chest. In another case, treated by Dendry, a knuckle 

 of intestine had got similarly lodged. From these and 

 other recorded similar cases, nothing, after all, can be 

 elicited which throws any light on broken- wind. 



Pulmonary emphysema, if not the most influential, is 

 the most frequent of the proximate causes. It constitutes 

 also the most elaborate of the opinions; one to which the 

 labours of Laennec and Andral have added very little. 



