THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 255 



from fifty to sixty-four per minute, but on some occasions it is 

 not at all disturbed. If the ear be applied to the chest, the mur- 

 mur can generally be detected very clearly throughout, particu- 

 larly in the superior regions of the cavity, while, if the ear be 

 held close to the lowest part of the inferior region, a sort of 

 rumbling sound is heard; but this can only be detected when 

 the skin over the part is more tender than elsewhere, and when 

 it is contracted into folds, and moves, and when such contractible 

 motion is continuous. This sound I entirely attribute to the 

 tremulous motion which is going on within the subtextures ; for if 

 the ear be kept firmly to the chest, the motion soon ceases, together 

 with the rumbling sound; and, provided we remain quiet, and 

 the animal be pacified, we can then distinctly hear the clear, 

 natural respiratory murmur, though somewhat suppressed from 

 the constrained manner in which the chest itself is expanded. 

 The hair over the entire body is dry, and very unthrifty in ap- 

 pearance. If the animal be made to walk up hill, it is performed 

 cleverly, but great difficulty is experienced in coming down 

 again ; the patient travels as though his feet were actually in- 

 flamed ; the appetite is bad in some cases, and moderately good 

 in others ; the urine is scanty, and the dung is dry looking ; the 

 patient does not lie down well ; it is seldom or never that he 

 coughs. In this state the animal may remain for weeks, without 

 the least variation, save that the pulse becomes lower, falling to 

 about thirty-eight or forty-two per minute ; but the majority of 

 such cases, if properly treated, are generally cured in from three 

 to six days." 



The causes are, over-exertion and exposure. " If the disease 

 be from an inflammation excited within the muscles of the chest 

 and fore extremities, and also of the cellular tissue investing or 

 surrounding such muscles, the fact, I think, will in a great meas- 

 ure be satisfactorily demonstrated. Should the animal have been 

 subject to long-continued and very severe exertion, this, together 

 with the tenderness of the muscles, and the assistance which aus- 

 cultation will afford us, will be sufficient to enable us to decide. In 

 conclusion, I may add that pleurisy, pleurodynia, and inflamma- 

 tion of the muscles may either exist as separate affections, or two 

 or more of them may exist in association, or any one of them, or 



