182 DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. 



have taken some pains/' continues Nimrod, '' to ascertain 

 this fact by my own personal inquiries. One proprietor, 

 who has nearly fifty horses at work — many of which are in 

 as fast coaches as any that travel on the road — assured me, 

 lately, that he had not a broken-winded horse in his yard; 

 whereas, before he stinted them in their hay, he generally 

 had one in five in that state.'' 



Why cannot we cure broken-wind ? This question is 

 extremely likely to be put to us — and by surgeons, too ; for 

 Laennec says, interlobular emphysema is curable — he has 

 seen " several recoveries from it." And Dr. Budd, who 

 presented a paper to the Medical and Chirurgical Society on 

 Vesicular Emphysema, says, in regard to the interlobular, 

 that it is the result of an accident — rupture of the air-cells 

 — most commonly caused by deep and rapid inspiration, 

 '^ and which is, generally, a very trifling injury." And, 

 again. Dr. Townsend's words on the same part of our subject 

 are — " fortunately, however, the diagnosis is not a matter 

 of much practical importance, as in slighter cases (in which 

 alone any ambiguity can exist) the air appears to be always 

 absorbed, and the interlobular partitions gradually return to 

 their natural state." 



There surely must be some mistake about this lesion. 

 Either we must be terribly out in our pathology, or these 

 medical philosophers must be in error. The difference of 

 the animals never can make this difference in results, the 

 causes being admitted to be similar. We have no notion 

 of the "absorption of air," and " the parts gradually re- 

 turning to their natural state." With us it is, once broken- 

 winded, for ever broken-winded. Delafond, indeed, speaks 

 of the possibility of cicatrisation of the torn air-cells, in 

 cases where they have been ruptured by violence, through 

 rest and depletive measures ; but he adduces no fact or case 

 to make us believe it possible ; nor, for my own part, have 

 I ever witnessed or heard of such a thing. 



