BROKEN WIND. 87 



luDgs vey^y readili/, which is manifested by a 

 sucUlen failing of tlie flanks, but is cxpeUed 

 slowli/, and with great dij/iculti/, as may be 

 perceived by tiie long contniueci exertion of 

 the abdominal muscles*. 



A\'hen the membrane which lines the wind- 

 pipe and all its branches has been ailected 



* A short time since, a horse completely broken winded was 

 given to me for tlie purpose of making esperinu-nts relative to the 

 glanders, a disease which has lor maiiN years occupied my atten- 

 tion, and will be fully treated of in this work. On destroying 

 the animal, and examining the lungs with great care, very little 

 disease could be obseiTed. So far from their being thickened ► 

 and in the slate Mr. Lawrence desciibes, they were specifically 

 lighter than natural ; and thougli no air-bladders were perceived 

 «n the surtace, there was evidently a great deal of air diffused in 

 the cellular membrane of the lungs^, which must r?i\'e been occa- 

 sioned by a rupture of one or more of the air-ceilb, or minute 

 branches of the windpipe ; L\eie being no oilier source from 

 which it could have been produced,* Now this was a case of 

 simple broken wind, which may be easily distinguished, not by 

 an unusually quick motion of the fiaiiks, bat by fui unequal mo- 

 tion. The flanks of a broken v/inded horse are d long time in 

 drawing up or contracting, which shows the diifxHlty he It-pls in 

 expelling the air from his lung?, or in expiring; but when iiiat is 

 eftected, the flanks drop suddenly, which shows tlidt the air 

 enters the lungs, or tliat the animal insyiircs with iruich greater 

 ease than he expires. It often happens, however, that 

 broken wind is complicated with thichness of wind, and, as I have 

 before observed, is sometimes occasioned by it, which probably 

 gave iise to the opinion we have endeavoured to refute. (St^e 

 Ccugh, Asthma, and Thickness of Wind, Appendix.) 



