BROKEN-WIND. 171 



Mr. Gloag says : " In two cases of broken-wind which 

 were destroyed for the profit of examination, after the most 

 careful scrutiny, I did not detect emphysema/^ And in 

 another instance — '^ the only anormal appearance I couid 

 discover was partial hepatisation of the right lung/^ 



Causes. — "Why horses are especially liable to broken- 

 wind," said Professor Coleman, "is, I think, to be ac- 

 counted for by the fact that he is the only animal (probably?) 

 which can be compelled to perform exertion on a full 

 stomach ; indeed, one of the most common causes is, riding 

 or driving a horse hard who has previously drunk a large 

 quantity of water. Being obliged to breathe quickly, and 

 feeling some impediment in inspiration, he endeavours by a 

 violent effort to remove it, in doing which the air-cells give 

 way. It is a rare circumstance to see a post or coach 

 horse broken- winded, unless so when purchased; and yet, 

 neither of these horses go gently at first, and have their 

 speed augmented as they proceed, as every horse ought to 

 have ; but, on the contrary, many of them are compelled to 

 start and continue at the rate of ten or eleven miles an 

 hour. You will naturally ask why such horses do not go 

 broken-winded. The answer is, it is ascribable to the 

 mode of feeding them. Each horse is probably allowed 

 201bs. of oats a day, but not more than 51bs. of hay; and 

 again, they are not watered previous to their going to work. 

 Such a mode of feeding is not only a palliation, but also a 

 preventive of broken-wind. Farmers' and millers' horses 

 are most disposed to this disease, because they feed them 

 largely with hay and chaff and mealy food, which blows them 

 out enormously, and then they are worked without discretion. 

 The most effectual way of breaking a horse's wind would be, 

 to procure a horse that was a great feeder — one that would 

 consume about 351bs. of hay in the course of the day ; and, 

 after having suffered him to eat as much as he chose — more 

 especially if you were to put a little salt with it — and giving 

 him as mnch water as he would drink, riding or driving him 

 hard for two or three miles. I should not object to buying 

 a horse as a hunter, myself, which was but slightly broken- 



