26 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



takes place between the air and the blood as the former passes in 

 and out of the lungs, it is a singular fact that in disease this uni- 

 form relationship is not maintained; for instance, in the earlier 

 stages of a disease the pulse may have risen to 85 or 90 

 beats per minute; the temperature stand at 105 degrees and 

 the breathing be fifty respirations a minute; in the course of 

 twenty-four or thirty-six hours the respiration may have dropped 

 to 25 per minute, while the state of the pulse and tempera- 

 ture are only slightly changed; or, on the other hand, the tem- 

 perature might have dropped to say 103 degrees and the pulse to 

 60 without any decrease in the number of respirations; from 

 this fact it will be seen that uniformity of action on the part of the 

 the heart and the lungs must not be always anticipated, nor need 

 the absence of the uniformity cause too much anxiety; it is a 

 proof, however, that nothing must be left to casual observation, 

 nor must you allow 5"0urself to be misled by the mere fact that on 

 the one hand the horse is the better because he breathes less fre- 

 quently, or that he is no better because his respirations continue 

 unaltered in frequenc3\ It must also be remembered that the 

 character of the act of breathing differs; on the one hand you 

 have what is called abdominal breathing, this is effected by the 

 contraction of the muscles of the abdomen and is most noticeable 

 in the flank; again there is the chest breathing and whichever of 

 these two classes of breathing predominates and are most clearh- 

 observable it indicates that the other is the seat of disease because 

 the muscles of the diseased portion of the organism cannot act 

 properly and so the burden of the respiratory act is thrown on the 

 other part, namely, either the cavity of the chest where the lungs 

 are located, or the cavity of the abdomen, the part where the 

 intestines are situated. There is one special form of breathing in 

 the horse which deserves notice in passing because it serves as 

 a distinct evidence of that condition known as '' broken-zvi?id;" 

 the inspiration or act of drawing in the air, and the expiration or 

 the act of sending out the air are not regular, but spasmodic in 

 expiration; this will be observed by noticing a line along the 

 course of the flank as though the muscles were tightly drawn 

 together every time the air is expired and this line is seen to move 

 like a wave along its course with two distinct efforts of expiration; 

 at the same time the horse is troubled with a peculiar cough; this, 



