NONCONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF RESPIRA- 

 TION. 



By Dr. WILLIAM HERBERT LOWE, 



Superintendent of the Untied States Neat Cattle Quarantine Station for the Port of X 



York, Garfield, N. J. 



In the determination of disease in the human being the physician is 

 aided by both subjective and objective symptoms in making his diag- 

 nosis; but the veterinary physician, in a very large majority of cases, 

 is obliged to rely almost solely upon objective symptoms, and perhaps 

 in no class of diseases is this more true than in the exploration of those 

 under consideration. This condition of affairs has a strong tendency to 

 <lc vdop observation and discernment in the veterinarian, and not infre- 

 quently do we tind that the successful veterinary practitioner is a very 

 accurate diagnostician. But in order to make a differential diagnosis 

 it is not only necessary to have a knowledge of the structure and func- 

 tions of the organs in health, but to adopt a rigid system of details ot 

 examination, without which successful results can not be reached. The- 

 utical treatment is worse than useless until the nature and seat of 

 the diseased process have been determined. The history of the case 

 should always be ascertained as far as possible and duly weighed. True, 

 this is often unreliable, but even when this is the case it is advisable to 

 weigh the evidence pro and cOn. 



As above indicated, it is only the careful and constant examination of 

 animals in health that will enable one to properly appreciate abnormal 

 conditions. One must become familiar with the frequency and charac- 

 ter of the pulfie and of the respiration must know the temperature of 

 the animal in health, before changes in abnormal conditions can be prop- 

 erly appreciated. 



The pulse in tin* healthy ox is more frequent than in the horse, beat- 

 ing from forty-five to fifty times per minute, while in the latter it only 

 beats thirty-six to forty. The pulse may be felt wherever an artory 

 passes over a bone close to t he skin. Exercise, overfeeding, pregnancy, 

 and other things may affect the frequency and character of the pulse. 

 It assumes various characters according to its rapidity of beat, fro 

 queiicy of occurrence, resistance to pressure, regularity, and pcrcepti- 



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