BROKEN-WIND. 163 



that of making an artificial anus. Here, the effect is mistaken 

 for the cause, this being produced simply by the efiForts such 

 horses make to enlarge the cavity of the chest by the 

 descent (receding) of the diaphragm; which, of course, 

 makes additional pressure on the bowels, and thereby causes 

 the expulsion of wind. Another very common result is, 

 that such horses dung a great deal on first undergoing 

 exertion ; which like the former, however, ceases the moment 

 the breathing becomes less oppressed. 



"On examining broken-winded lungs, we find the surface, 

 externally, assuming all the appearances of health ; though, 

 if compared with lungs in a normal state, we shall find 

 them specifically lighter, arising from their containing a 

 quantity of air, which the last expiration of the animal was 

 unable to rid them of/^i 



Mr. Cherry, the Principal Veterinary Surgeon to the 

 Cavalry, happening in the year 1823 to have a strikingly 

 well-marked case of broken- wind in his infirmary at Clapham, 

 was kind enough to inform me he would have the horse 

 destroyed any day I could be present. 



Accordingly, I attended, and no sooner was life extin- 

 guished than *we removed the lungs, trachea, and larynx 

 from the body, and submitted them, as yet steaming with 

 vital vapour, to close and careful examination. The general 

 aspect of every part was that of perfect health, save that the 

 lungs were paler — being of a light pink hue — than they 

 generally are at this time of life — eight years old. The 

 pleura was everywhere in apparent health, except in those 

 places where it was elevated, by air underneath, into 

 vesicles ; there, it was opaque and whitish, giving the vesicles 

 the appearance of so many white tubercles. The vesicles 

 were most numerous and conspicuous upon the anterior 

 lobuli; but both lungs had, in every part, a crackling 

 emphysematous feel, and the air they contained could be 

 readily made to traverse their substance by compression. 

 They were remarkably buoyant in water, particularly the 

 anterior lobes. When inflated, the air appeared to distend 

 ' Professor Coleman's ' Lectures' at the Royal Veterinary College. 



