DIAGNOSIS. 27 



however, is only mentioned in passing; the fuller particulars will 

 be gone into under the proper heading. 



When the abdominal breathing is very pronounced and you 

 have therefore an indication that the thoracic cavity is the seat of 

 the disease, namely, that either congestion of the lungs, or bron- 

 chitis or pleurisy, or worse still, all three combined are present, then 

 your attention must be given to find out by what is called 

 auscultation, (or listening to the sounds) of the chest, by apply- 

 ing the ear to both sides of the horse; the chest, roughl}^ 

 speaking, being included in that portion of the body which is en- 

 closed within the ribs, and whereas the lungs occupy a consider- 

 able space, they offer a rather large surface for examination, for 

 which reason the ear should be carefully applied to various parts 

 of the chest in order to be sure which portion of the lungs, and 

 whether only one is affected, or both are. As recommended in 

 the case of taking the temperature and the pulse, an amateur 

 would do well to practice carefully on healthy animals so as to 

 learn what the normal sounds of the chest are, and this will en- 

 able him the more readily to discern anything out of the common 

 when disease is present. It is very important that the operation 

 should be practiced in a perfectly quiet place so that the attention 

 of neither operator nor patient is distracted. As there would be 

 no practical utility in going deeply and closely into a definition of 

 all the recognized deviations from the healthy standard of breath- 

 ing in the horse, and it will be sufficient for the purpose of this 

 work to endeavor to explain two or three of the most noticeable 

 departures from the normal, it is essential to a clear understand- 

 ing that the sounds observable in health should be explained; 

 shortly, they represent an even, soft murmur like the gentle rust- 

 ling of thick foliage on a quiet summer's night listened to at a 

 distance; the sound pitch is much the same during both inspira- 

 tion and expiration, though it must be distinctly understood that 

 between the two acts a pause takes place; the character of the 

 sound has also been likened to that produced by gently rubbing 

 two pieces of silk together. In contra-distinction to the soft 

 respirator}' murmur heard in a health}' animal, modifications of the 

 same will be observable in disease; the sounds may be harsh and 

 roiii^h, suggestive of inflammation of the lungs; deep in tone, in- 

 dicating the early stages of bronchitis when the larger tubes are 



