187 



KUPTURE or THE DIAPHRAGM. 



It is not many years since this lesion was added to our 

 nosology. For calling his attention to it, as well as for 

 showing its connection, in similarity of symptoms at least, 

 with broken-wind, I believe the veterinary surgeon to be 

 indebted to an estimable, now deceased, friend of mine, 

 Mr. Thomas King, late surgeon at Barnstaple; with whom, 

 while dressing for Mr. Travers at St. Thomas's Hospital, I 

 had the good fortune to become very intimately associated. 

 Shortly after leaving the hospital for private practice — 

 having while there, as it would appear from his acquaintance 

 with me, imbibed a taste and liking for veterinary pursuits 

 — Mr. King sent me, I think it was in the year 1825, the 

 following communication, which I, three years afterwards, 

 published in one of the earliest Numbers^ of The Vete- 

 rinarian : in fact, almost immediately after I had originated 

 that Journal. 



"A little mare of my father's was many years since 

 ridden rather sharply for half a dozen miles. This was in 

 summer; consequently she was in all probability full of 

 grass. Be that as it may, she soon after exhibited the 

 symptoms of broken-wind. At length, she died rather 

 suddenly, whilst standing in the stable. I ought to have 

 mentioned that the cough was the most curious apology for 

 a cough you ever heard : it resembled nothing so much as 

 the short breathing of a child under pulmonary inflam- 

 mation. On examination, it was found that the diaphragm 

 was lacerated on the left side through its whole extent, 

 throwing the two cavities into one. The laceration appeared 

 recent ; but I should think it must have been in part old : 

 what should you say ? The lungs were dark-coloured and 

 collapsed; the edge of each lobe to such a degree that 

 those parts were not inflatable, though air could be made to 

 pass when they were cut through. No air underneath the 

 pleura pulmonalis. Heart and large vessels quite healthy. 

 Posterior surface of the diaphragm on the left side showed 

 " In voL i, page 101. 



