THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 311 



there is reason to think, produces it ; the practice of using 

 tight throat lashes or neck straps may likewise induce it. 

 In furtherance of which last opinion it may be recollected 

 that horsemen have a very general supposition that crib- 

 biting ends in roaring, in thick wind, or in broken wind. 

 May not the tight collar, strapped around the throat, here 

 tend to the former of these affections ? The custom of 

 "coughing" horses, and so frequently as it is practised in 

 fairs, may be readily supposed as a cause. A horse passes 

 from fair to fair, having his unfortunate throat brutally 

 pinched tliirty or forty times each day. Is it to be 

 wondered at if inflammation takes place, and adhesive 

 deposit follow ? 



Treatment. — This must be regulated by circumstances. 

 When it is acute, and depends upon the diseased state of 

 neighbouring parts, the inflammation of those parts must 

 be relieved. When it can be discovered to be the conse- 

 quence of recent inflammation of the larjmgeal or tracheal 

 cartilages, a physic ball may be given, and the seat of the 

 disease blistered, while from day to day some sedative 

 medicine is administered. In every case of roaring, how- 

 ever, excepting the acute, the cure depends quite as much 

 upon chance as upon skill. 



Chronic Cough. — Coughing is a spasmodic effort of the 

 diaphragm, intercostal and abdominal muscles, producing 

 a forcible expulsion of the air from the chest with such 

 violence as is calculated to remove any extraneous body 

 that may intercept the free passage of the air. Whenever 

 it accompanies a general affection of the constitution, it is 

 regarded as simply " symptomatic," and the original disease 

 is attended to for its removal. Thus catarrh is accompanied 

 by a cough, but we attend principally to the general affection 

 as the best means of subduing it. A " chronic cough " is 

 often symptomatic of some aftection of the air-passages ; 

 it is also an attendant upon the state called broken wind. 

 It likewise accompanies glanders ; and appears when worms 

 are in the stomach and bowels. But besides these cases, 

 there exist at times, without any attendant difficulty of 

 breathing (the horse at the same time eating well and 

 thriving), a permanent cough, usually more considerable in 

 the morning and evening, after meals, particularly after 

 drinking, or on first going out to exercise ; and it will 

 remain in this state, without otherwise affecting the horse, 



