RESPIRATORY AFFECTIONS 



BROKEN WIND 



This is a very expressive term, implying as it 

 does that the respiratory act is broken in two, 

 or in other words double. It seems hardly 

 necessary to state that a broken-winded hunter 

 has no marketable value, though it may per- 

 form a certain amount of work. In some 

 instances of broken wind, the disease changes 

 have principally been in connection with the 

 lungs and stomach; the former being dilated 

 and the latter in a condition known as emphy- 

 sema, which in plain language comprises rupture 

 of the air spaces of the lungs, arising from 

 their over-distention. Nothing definite is known 

 as to the causes giving rise to this trouble, 

 neither are the pathological changes, discover- 

 able post-mortem, uniform in character, hence 

 the reason why broken wind remains somewhat 

 obscure, as regards the pathology of it. The 

 act of " inspiration " is performed normally, but 

 the "expiratory" portion is double (double lift) 

 and appears to consist of two distinct phases, 

 in which the first phase is marked by the air 

 being forced out of the lungs until it reaches 



143 



