620 ROARING DYSPNCEA. 



KOARING DYSPNOEA. 



A roarer, or whistler, is a horse affected with difficulty of 

 breathing from contraction of the air-passages. There are 

 several lesions, which are characterised by the symptoms of 

 harsh, sonorous breathing, and which constitute permanent 

 unsoundness. The deformity in the air-passages may exist 

 in the nose, pharynx, larynx, and trachea. 



Cases of Roaring due to Diseases of the Nose. I. I was 

 recently driven home from the railway station in a cab, and 

 on alighting, remonstrated with the driver for using the worst 

 roarer I think I ever heard. It turned out that the horse, 

 only now six years old, fell on his head when a colt, and 

 smashed his nasal bones, so as to constrict the nasal passages. 

 I have witnessed other cases of depression of the nasal bones 

 attended with a similar result. 



II. Tumours frequently plug the one nostril, and as air can 

 only pass through the opposite one, the noise in breathing is 

 extremely loud. The tumours of the nose may be classed 

 under two heads: 1st, The fibrous, or soft polypi; and, 2nd, 

 The osseous. 



With regard to the soft nasal polypi, they may be single or 

 multiple, and either occupy the nasal chamber or the ad- 

 joining sinuses. They occur usually in adult or aged horses, 

 and their presence is at first only indicated by the larger 

 current of air through one nostril than through the other. 

 Breathing may be totally stopped through one chamber, and 

 by this time deformity of the facial bone is observed. On 

 examining the nose carefully, the polypus may be seen or 

 felt. On percussion, the part occupied by the solid mass is 

 found dull, especially when contrasted with the healthy side ; 

 there is frequently some discharge, and occasionally some 

 haemorrhage from the chamber occupied by the polypus. 



