BEOKEN-WIND. 173 



them. I believe, myself, that broken-wind is a much-less- 

 frequently-met-with disease than formerly. I can avouch 

 that it prevails little among military horses ; its occurrence 

 is not anything comparable to that of roaring. And it 

 seems to be less prevalent among high than low bred horses. 

 Coleman^s theory accords with what is observed in human 

 kind. Dr. Towusend informs us that "the great majority 

 of cases (of interlobular emphysema) seem to result from 

 some sudden and violent effort of the respiratory muscles, 

 as in the forcing pains of child-birth, in raising heavy 

 weights, in hooping-cough, &c.'^ For the most part, 

 broken-wind affects aged horses : rarely do we see it in 

 young ones. D^Arboval says he never met with a case 

 prior to the sixth year of age, and believes that mares are 

 more disposed to it than horses. The following is a case 

 of its occurrence early in life, as well as of its progressive 

 development : 



A gelding was passed by me at three years old, for 

 my regiment, sound in every respect. The second winter 

 afterwards he experienced an attack of chronic bronchitis, a 

 prominent symptom of which was cough, which proved 

 obstinate, and remained after all the other symptoms had 

 disappeared. Although considered "cured,^^ he was not 

 suffered to do any work in consequence of the cough 

 hanging about him. In the ensuing spring, during the 

 blowing of a keen easterly wind, the cough ])ecame increased 

 to that degree that I again submitted him to medical treat- 

 ment. After a time, I perceived there was some agitation 

 of the flanks, not of a character to denote anything like 

 pneumonia, but such as evidently portended the approach of 

 broken- wind. And what appeared to confirm this prognosis 

 was, that his appetite and spirits continued undiminished, 

 although his cough, which came on by fits, was now of that 

 violent and convulsive character that it almost choked him, 

 and withal so loud that it could be heard at a very con- 

 siderable distance. By degrees, however, after a time, 

 it became both less loud and less troublesome; and in the 

 end degenerated into the feeble, short, husky, pathognomonic 



