CONGESTION OF THE LUNGS. 365 



work; and by defective ventilation in the stable. The fact of an 

 animal being out of condition gi^eatly increases his liability to 

 congestion of the lungs from exertion. The distress is due to the 

 lungs having become gorged with more blood than they can purify 

 and return back to the heart. Death, in this disease, occurs from 

 suffocation. More or less congestion always precedes inflamma- 

 tion of the lungs, and is, then, a transitory condition, and not a 

 distinct disease in itself. 



Congestion of the lungs from exertion occurs either directly or 

 indirectly. We may have the direct form when a gross hunter has 

 been ridden to a " stand-still " by an ignorant or brutal rider. 

 Not unfrequently hunters exhibit the indirect form after (say, 

 a couple of hom's or more) they have retmlied, seemingly all 

 right, to their stable. Other horses, under similar conditions of 

 work, are, of course, as apt to get an attack as hunters. The first 

 symptom of the indirect form usually noticed is that the animal 

 begins, w-ithout any apparent cause, to " blow " — that is, to breathe 

 quickly with distended nostrils. It appears, in these cases, that 

 the sudden cessation of active exercise causes a large amount of 

 blood to leave the blood-vessels of the limbs, and, consequently, 

 produces more or less congestion in the vessels of the internal 

 organs, which are liable to injury on this account proportionately 

 to the extent they have been weakened by continued exertion or 

 other causes. It is evident that the adoption of healthy means by 

 which the rapidity of this return of blood can be checked, Avill act 

 as a valuable preventive to this disease. We should also bear in 

 mind that the more the system has been depleted of water, the 

 less able will the blood be to circulate through its vessels. Hence, 

 the liability to indirect congestion of the lungs will be propor- 

 tionate, chiefly, to the unfitness of the animal; the duration and 

 severity of the work; the length of time the animal has been 

 deprived of water; the heated condition of the body at the time 

 when the animal is stabled; the chilling influences to which the 

 surface of the body is exposed after work, in or out of the stable ; 

 and want of ventilation and existence of draughts in the stable. 

 The good effect of a drink of water in facilitating the circulation, 

 especially of the surface of the body, when the system is in a 

 heated state from severe exertion, and has been for a long: time 

 deprived of water, is well shown in our own cases, under similar 

 circumstances, by the relief of oppression on heart and lungs, and 

 by the skin becoming moist from perspiration. Whether our drinlv 

 be tea, coffee, beer, shandy-gaff, or whisky and soda, the chief 

 benefit w^ill be derived from the water contained in it. A small 

 amount of alcohol will act as a stimulant to the superficial circula- 

 tion. Giving a hunter, while he is out, a small drink of water 



