BRONCHITIS. 205 



excellent account of the malig-nant epidemic in the last edition of Mrs Blaine's Vete- 

 rinary Outlines, there will not be found any satisfactory history of it in ilie writings 

 of our English veterinarians. It is evidently a disease of the mucous membrf.nes, 

 both the respiratory and digestive. It is accompanied by early and great debility, 

 loss of all vital power, vitiation of every secretion, effusions and tumours everywhere, 

 and it runs its course with fearful rapidity. If it was seen at its outset, the practi- 

 tioner would probably bleed; but if a i'ew hours only had elapsed, he v.'ould find 

 with Messrs. I3rognone and Gilbert, that venesection would only hasten the catas 

 trophe. Stimulants should be administered mingled with opium, and the spirit of 

 nitrous ether in doses of three or four ounces, with an ounce or more of laudanum. 

 The quantity of opium should be regulated by the spasms and the diarrhosa. These 

 medicines should be repeated in a few hours, combined, perhaps, with ginger and 

 o-entian. If these failed, there is little else to be done. Deep incisions into the tu- 

 mours, or blisters over them, might be proper measures ; but the princi])al attention 

 should be directed to the arresting of the contagion. The infected should be imme- 

 diately removed from the healthy. All offensive matter should be carefully cleared 

 away, and no small portion of chloride of lime used in washing the animal, and par- 

 ticularly his ulcers. It might with great propriety be administered internally, while 

 the stable, and everything that belonged to the patient, should undergo a careful ablu- 

 ion with the same powerful disinfectant. 



BRONCHITIS. 



This is not generally a primarj'^ disease. That inflammation of the superior respi- 

 ratory passages, constituting catarrh, gradually creeps downwards and involves the 

 larynx and the trachea, and at length, possibly, the farthest and the minutest ramifi- 

 cations of the air-tubes. When it is found to be thus advancing, its progress should 

 be carefully watched by the assistance of auscultation. Tlie distant murmur of the 

 healthy lung cannot be mistaken, nor the crepitating sound of pneumonia; and in 

 bronchitis the blood may be heard filtering or breaking through the divisions of the 

 lobuli, and accounting for that congestion or filling of the cells with mucus and blood, 

 which is found after intense inflammation. Inflammation precedes this increased dis- 

 charge of mucus. Even that may be detected. The inflamed membrane is thickened 

 and tense. It assumes an almost cartilaginous structure, and the murmur is not only 

 louder, but has a kind of snoring sound. Some have imagined that a sound like a 

 metallic ring is mingled with it; liut this is never very distinct. 



The interrupted whizzing sound has often and clearly indicated a case of bronchitis, 

 and there are many corroborative symptoms which should be regarded. The variable 

 temperature of the extremities will be an important guide — not deathly cold as in 

 pneumonia, nor of increased temperature, as often in catarrh, but with a tendency to 

 coldness, yet this varying much. The pulse will assist the diagnosis — more rapid 

 than in catarrh, much more so than in the early stage of pneumonia : not so hard as 

 in pleurisy, m Dre so than in catarrh, and much more so than in pneumonia. The res- 

 piration shoald next be examined, abundantly more rapid than in catarrh, pneumonia, 

 or pleurisy ; generally as rapid and often more so than the pulse, and accompanied by 

 a wheezing sound, heard at some distance. Mr. Percivall relates a case in which the 

 respiration was more than one hundred in a minute. Mr. C. Percivall describes an 

 interesting case in which the respiration was quick in the extreme ; and he remarks, 

 that he does " not remember to have seen a horse with his respiration so disturbed." 



In addition to these clearly characteristic symptoms, will be observed a haggard 

 countenance, to which the anxious look of the horse labouring under inflammation of 

 the lungs cannot for a moment be compared ; also an evident dread of suffocation, 

 expressed, not by inability to move, as in pneumonia, but frequently an obstinate 

 refusal to do so ; cough painful in the extreme; breath hot, yet no marked pain in the 

 part, and no looking at the side or flanks. 



As the disease proceeds, there will be considerable discharu'R from the nostrils, 

 much more than in catarrh, because greater extent of membrane is effected. It will 

 be muco-purulent at first, but will soon become amber-coloured or green, or greyish 

 green; an'l that not from any portion of the food being returned, but from the pecu- 

 liar hue of the secretion from ulcers in the bronchial passages. Small organised 

 pieces will mingle with the discharn-e, — portions of mucus condensed and hardened, 

 18 



