104 BROKEN WIND. 



the food in as small a compass as possible ; more corn 

 and less hay ; not working on a full stomach ; regular 

 exercise ; and exacting from the horse only that 

 degree of exertion of which he is capable without dis- 

 tress. Such care will gradually increase the animal's 

 capability of endurance, and his power of performing 

 profitable labour will reward the consideration of his 

 proprietor. By these means, a thick-winded horse 

 may often be made serviceable for all ordinary pur- 

 poses, though the animal thus affected should never 

 be driven hard or forced to undergo unusual exertion. 



BROKEN WIND. 



This is sometimes the consequence of violent and 

 protracted inflammation of the lungs ; and it is also 

 the result of low diet and over- work ; more frequently 

 it is owing to bodily exertion upon a loaded stomach ; 

 and not unseldom it is produced by coarse or watery 

 food deranging the digestion. It is precisely what 

 its name imports : it is a rupture of some of the cells 

 of the lungs. The consequence of this is, that the 

 integrity of the lung is destroyed ; certain of the finer 

 tubes leading to the ruptured cells are obliterated ; 

 the entire structure is as it were confused ; the air is 

 readily admitted into the lungs, but the elasticity 

 being lost, cannot without great difficulty be forced 

 out again. This satisfactorily accounts for the pe- 

 culiar method of breathing which distinguishes the 

 broken-winded horse. He inspires spasmodically ; 

 the expiration, or return of the air from the lungs, is, 

 however, accomplished by a double effort ; one suc- 

 ceeding to the other, the first being consequent upon 



