INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS, 183 



cold and coiiG^h are the first consequences. What must inevitably happen 

 to the horse that stands, twenty hours out of tlie four and twenty, in a 

 heated atmosphere, and stands there warmly clothed, and every pore of his 

 skin opened, and the insensible perspiration, and the sensible too, pro- 

 fusely pourinn- out, and then, with his coat stripped from his back, is 

 turned shivering- into a nipping- winter's air? The discharge from the 

 skin is at once arrested, and the revulsion, or pernicious effect of the sudden 

 stoppage of a natural evacuation, falls on the lungs, too much weakened, 

 and disposed to inflammation by heated air and poisonous fumes. 



These simple observations are pregnant with interest and instruc- 

 tion to all connected with horses. He who would have his stud free 

 from disease, and especially disease of the hings, must pursue two ob- 

 jects, coolness and cleanliness. In the gentleman's stable, tlie first of these 

 is studiously avoided, from the prejudice or the idleness of the groom, 

 and from these stables proceed most of the cases of inflamed lungs ; 

 especially when this heat is combined with that temporary but mischie- 

 vous nuisance, the repeated breathing of the same air during the night, 

 and that air more vitiated by the fumes of the dung and urine. In the 

 stables of the post-master, where not only closeness and heat, but the filth 

 that would not be endured in a gentleman's establishment, are found, both 

 inflammation of the lungs and glanders prevail ; and in the stables of 

 many agriculturists, cool enough from the poverty or the carelessness of 

 the owner, but choked with filth, inflammation of the lungs is seldom seen, 

 but mange, glanders, and farcy abound. 



Inflammation of the substance of the lungs is sometimes sudden in its 

 attack, but generally preceded by sym[)toms of fever. The pulse is occa- 

 sionally not much increased in frequency, but oppressed and indistinct ; 

 the artery is plainly to be felt under the finger, and of its usual size, but 

 the pulse no longer indicates the expansion of the vessel, as it yields to the 

 gush of blood, and its contraction vvhen the blood has passed; it is rather 

 a vibration or thrill, communicated to a fluid already over-distending the 

 artery ; in a few cases, even this almost eludes the most delicate touch, 

 and scarcely any pulsation is to be detected. The extremities are cold ; — 

 the nostril is expanded ; — the head thrust out, and the flanks begin to heave. 

 There is a peculiarity in the working of the flank. It is not the deep 

 laborious breathing of fever, nor the irregular beating of broken wind, 

 in which the air appears to be drawn in by one effort, while two 

 seem to be necessary to expel it; but it is a quick hurried motion, 

 evidently expressive of pain, and of inability to complete the action, on ac- 

 count of the pain, or of some mechanical obstruction. The membrane of 

 the nose is of an intensely florid red — more vivid in the inside corners of 

 the nostrils, and remaining concentrated there if at times it should seem 

 to fade away higher up. The countenance is singularly anxious, and 

 indicative of suffering, and many a mournful look is directed at the flanks. 

 The horse stands in a singular manner, stiff, with his foreleg:s abroad, that 

 the chest may be expanded as much as possible, and he is unwilling to move, 

 lest for a moment he should lose the assistance of the muscles of the arms 

 and shoulders, in producing that expansion ; and, for the same reason, 

 he obstinately stands up day after day, and night after night; or if he lies 

 down from absolute fatigue, it is but for a moment. 



In many instances, however, the approacli of the disease is very treach- 

 erous, and the most careful practitioner may be deceived. The groom 

 may perceive that the horse is somewhat off his feed, and dull, but he pays 

 little attention to it ; or if it arrests his notice, he only finds that the coat 

 stares a little, that the legs are colder than usual, and the breathing in a 



