BROKEN WIND. 377 



the inferior maxillary sinus, another hole, lower down on the cheek 

 and clear the passage by means of syringing and the use of a probe. 

 To keep the holes in the bone from closing up, we may fit into 

 them respectively, after syringing the cavities out, champagne 

 corks ; those used for the holes in either of the maxillary sinuses, 

 having a passage bored down their centre with a rat-tailed file, for 

 purposes of drainage. When we find that the .secretion of the 

 mucous membrane is healthy, which under ordinary circumstances 

 it will be in a fortnight or three weeks, we should take out the corks 

 and allow the wounds to heal up. If we find that the cause of the 

 nasal gleet is the presence of the diseased fang of a tooth which 

 projects into one lof the maxillary sinuses, we should remove the 

 offending tooth, which is an operation I need not describe here. It 

 is well to feed the patient off the ground, for the lower the head 

 is held, the more efficient will be the drainage. Probably, much 

 of the good obtained in this disease from turning the horse out 

 to grass, is due to the head being kept longer in a dependent posi- 

 tion than if the animal was in the stable. 



Broken IVind {Emphysema of the Lu?igs). 



The term " broken wind " denotes a chronic condition of difficulty 

 of breathing in which the act of expiration is always longer than 

 that of inspiration. 



The difficulty of breathing in broken wind is almost always due to 

 emphysema of the lungs, which consists of a dilated condition of the lungs, 

 owing to an excess of air in the air-cells or in the cellular tissue that sur- 

 rounds the lobules (p. 361). This continued dilatation prevents the lungs 

 from becoming exhausted of air, at the end of the act of expiration, to their 

 full extent, which causes the amount of air taken in to be less than it would 

 be, were the lungs capable of being properly emptied. In any case, a certain 

 amount (residual air) always remains in the lungs. When the distension 

 occurs in the air-cells — in which case, by the breaking down of their walls, 

 the cells of the affected lobule tend to run into each other — the chief cause 

 seems to be violent expiratory efforts made in the act of coughing. In the 

 case, however, of distension existing in the connective tissue (inter-lohular 

 emphysema), the entrance of air appears to occur during inspiration; the 

 primary cause being, probably, some slow and long-continued degenerative 

 change in the lung tissue. As a full condition of the stomach and intestines 

 greatly interferes with the action of the lungs, it is not surprising that violent 

 work, when the animal is " blown out " with food, and especially when his 

 " condition " is not good, should be followed by emphysema of the lungs. 



Owing, probably, to improved stable management, broken wind 

 is now a rare disease. 



SYMPTOMS. — ^When breathing, while the animal is at rest, air 

 is taken into the lungs in a more or less normal manner, but is 

 expelled from them by two distinct efforts, the muscles of the 

 abdomen forcibly aiding the completion of the act of expiration. 



