CHRONIC COUGH. 21. 



consider the nature and the seat of the disease, and the predisposition to returning; 

 inflammation. If the season will permit, two or three months' run at grass should 

 succeed to our medical treatment; but if this is impracticable, we must put off the 

 period of active work as long as it can be delayed ; and even after that permit the 

 horse to return as gradually as may be to his usual employment and food. 



Most frequent in occurrence among the consequences of inflammation of the iungs, 

 js 



CHRONIC COUGH. 



It would occupy more space tlian can be devoted to this part of our subject, to treat 

 of all the causes of obstinate cough. The irritability of so great a portion of the air- 

 passages, occasioned by previous and violent inflammation of them, is the most fre- 

 quent. It is sometimes connected with worms. There is much sympathy between 

 the lungs and the intestines, and the one readily participates in the irritation produced 

 in the other. That it is caused by glanders can be easily imagined, because that dis- 

 ease is, in its early stage, seated in or near the principal air-passages, and little time 

 passes before the lungs become affected. It is the necessary attendant of thick wind 

 and broken wind, for these proceed from alterations of the structure of the lungs. 



Notwithstanding the clearness of the cause, ttie cure is not so evident. If a harsh 

 hollow cough is accompanied by a staring coat, and the appearance of worms, — a few 

 worm-balls may expel these parasites, and remove the irritation of the intestinal canal. 

 If it proceeds from irritability of the air-passages, which will be discovered by the 

 horse coughing after drinking, or when he first goes out of the stable in the morning, 

 or by his occasionally snorting out thick mucus from the nose, medicines may be 

 given, and sometimes with advantage, to diminish irritation generall}'. Small doses 

 of digitalis, emetic tartar, and nitre, administered every night, frequently have a bene- 

 ficial effect, especially when mixed with tar, which seems to have a powerful influence 

 in allaying the irritation. These balls should, if necessary, be regularly given for a 

 considerable time. They are sufficiently powerful to (piiet slight excitement of this 

 kind, but not to nauseate the horse, or interfere with his food or his work. A blister, 

 extending from the root of one ear to that of the other, taking in the whole of the 

 channel, and reaching six or eiglit inches down the windpipe, has been tried, and 

 often with good effect, on the supposition that the irritation may exist in the fauces 

 or the larynx. The blister has sometimes been extended through the whole course 

 of the windpipe, until it enters the chest. 



Feeding has much influence on this complaint. Too much dry meat, and espe- 

 cially chaff, increase it. It is aggravated when the horse is sufl'ered to eat his litter; 

 and it is often relieved when spring tares are given. Carrots afford decided relief. 



The seat of the disease, however, is so uncertain, and all our means and appliances 

 so inefficacious, and the cough itself so little interfering, and sometimes interfering not 

 at all with the health of the animal, that it is scarcely worth while to persevere in 

 any mode of treatment that is not evidently attended with benefit. The principal 

 consideration to induce us to meddle at all with clironic cough is the knowledge that 

 horses afflicted wi(h it are more liable than others to be affected by changes of tem- 

 perature, and that inflammation of the lungs, or of the respiratory passages, often 

 assumes in them a very alarming character; to which, perhaps, may be added, that a 

 horse with chronic cough cannot be warranted sound. 



When chronic cough chiefly occurs after eating, the seat of the disease is evidently 

 in the substance of the lungs. The stomach distended with food presses upon the 

 diaphragm, and the diaphragm upon the lunges; and the lungs, alread}' labouring 

 under some congestion, are less capable of transmitting the air. In the violent effort 

 to discharge their function, irritation is produced ; and the act of coughing is the con- 

 sequence of that irritation. 



The Veterinary Surgeon labours under great disadvantage in the treatment of his 

 patients. He must not only subdue the malady, but he must remove all its conse- 

 quences. He must leave fiis pnticnt perfectly sound, nr he has done comparalively nothing. 

 This is a task always difficult, and sometimes impossible to be accomplished. The 

 two most frequent consequences of severe chest affections in the horse are recognised 

 under the terms thick ivind and broken u-ind. The breathing is hurried in both, and 

 the horse is generally much distressed when put upon his speed ; but it is simply 

 quick breathing in the first, with a peculiar sound like half roaring — the inspirations 



