RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM. 195 



is of great importance to us — not that we have any power to 

 remedy one more than the other, but — that we may be 

 enabled to establish such a diagnosis between them as shall 

 guard us from mistaking two pathological conditions so 

 totally different in nature from each other as rupture of the 

 air-cells and rupture of the diaphragm. There can be no 

 doubt but that they have been too often confounded, and 

 hence one reason for the discrepancy of opinion concerning 

 the nature of broken-wind. The principal diagnostics must 

 be, the respiration and cough : at the same time, every other 

 collateral inquiry should be instituted likely to throw light 

 upon the case. Should colicky or hernial symptoms super- 

 vene, its nature will admit of little doubt. 



