BROKEN-AVIND, 299 



fewer capillary bloodvessels, less blood, and consequently less moisture — 

 tliey are dry and liglit, and float upon water like a bladder tilled with air. 

 13roken-\^dnd may be the result of either of these states : when it comes 

 on slowly, following an attack of bronchitis, and consequent thick-wind, 

 it is owing to the overloaded air-cells jiressing on, breaking down, and 

 coalescing ^vith each other ; when it is developed suddenly, it depends on 

 a rupture of the air-cells into the areolar tissue from some very severe 

 exertion, and the result is sudden and immediate. 



Some circumstances attending this disease may now, probably, be ac- 

 L'ounted for. A troublesome cough, and sometimes of long continuance, 

 is the foundation of the disease, or indicates that irritable state of the 

 bronchial membrane vnih which broken- wind is almost necessarily as- 

 sociated. Horses that are greedy feeders, or devour large quantities of 

 slightly nutintious food, or are worked with a stomach distended by this 

 food, are very subject to broken-wind. More depends ujion the manage- 

 ment of the food and exercise than is generally supposed. The post-horse, 

 the coach-horse, and the racer are comparatively seldom broken- winded. 

 They are fed, at stated periods, on nutritious food that lies in little com- 

 pass, and theii' hours of feeding and of exertion arc so arranged that they 

 seldom work on a full stomach. The agricultural horse is too often fed 

 on the very refuse of the farm, and his hours of feeding and of work are 

 frequently ii-regular ; and the carriage-horse, although fed on more 

 nutritious food, is often summoned to work by his capricious master the 

 moment his meal is devoured. 



A rapid gallop on a full stomach has often produced broken-wind. 

 When the exertion has been considerable and long-continued, Ave can 

 easily conceive a rupture of the air-cells of the soundest lungs ; but we 

 are inclined to beHeve, that were the history of these cases known, there 

 would be found to have been a gradual preparation for this result. There 

 would have been chronic cough, or more than usually disturbed respiration 

 after exercise, and then it required little more to perfect the mischief. 

 Galloping after drinking has been censured as a cause of broken- wind, 

 yet we cannot think that it is half so dangerous as galloping with a 

 stomach distended by solid food. It is said that broken-winded horses are 

 foul feeders, because they devour almost everything that comes in their 

 way, and thus impede the play of the lungs ; but there is so much sym- 

 pathy between the respiratory and digestive systems, that one cannot be 

 much deranged without the other evidently suffering. Flatulence and a 

 depraved appetite may be the consequence as well as the cause of broken- 

 wind ; and there is no pathological fact of more frequent occuiTcnce than 

 the coexistence of indigestion and flatulence with broken- wind. Flatu- 

 lence seems so invariable a concomitant of broken- Avind, that the old 

 farriers used to think the air found its way from the lungs to the abdomen 

 in some inexplicable manner, and hence their ' holes to let out broken- 

 wind ; ' they used literally to make a hole near to or above the funda- 

 ment in order to give vent to the imprisoned wind. The sjihincter muscle 

 was generally divided ; and although the trumping ceased, there was a 

 constant although silent emission of foetid gas, that made the remedy 

 worse than the disease. 



Young horses are seldom found the subject of broken- wind, but there is 

 no class amongst which it is so prevalent as aged horses employed for 

 agricultural purposes. In these animals it usually comes on gradually, 

 and can generally be traced to a paralysed condition of the pneumogastric 

 nerve. It may therefore be considered as primarily a disease of the diges- 

 tive organs, depending upon the indigestible nature of the food, and the 

 irregular manner in which these animals are fed. There san be little 



