274 CHRONIC COUGH. 



of the air-passages^ occasioned by previous and violent inflammation of them, is. 

 the most frequent. It is sometimes connected with worms. There is much 

 sympathy between the lungs and the intestines, and the one readily participates 

 in the irritation produced in the other. That it is caused by glanders can be 

 easily imagined, because that disease is, in its early stage, seated in or near the 

 principal air-passages, and little time passes before the lungs become affected. 

 It is the necessary attendant of thick wind and broken wind, for these proceed 

 from alterations of the structure of the lungs. 



Notwithstanding the clearness of the cause, the cure is not so evident. If a 

 harsh hollow cough is accompanied by a staring coat, and the appearance of 

 worms, — a few worm-balls may expel these parasites, and remove the irritation 

 of the intestinal canal. If it proceeds from irritability of the air-passages, 

 which will be discovered by the horse coughing after drinking, or when he first 

 goes out of the stable in the morning, or by his occasionally snorting out thick 

 mucus from the nose, medicines may be given, and sometimes with advantage, 

 to diminish irritation generally. Small doses of digitalis, emetic tartar, and 

 nitre, administered every night, frequently have a beneficial effect, especially 

 when mixed with tar, which seems to have a powerful influence in allaying the 

 irritation. These balls should, if necessary, be regularly given for a con- 

 siderable time. They ai'e sufficiently powerful to quiet slight excitement 01 

 this kind, but not to nauseate the horse, or interfere with his food or his work. 

 A blister, extending from the root of one ear to that of the other, taking in the 

 whole of the channel, and reaching six or eight inches down the windpipe, has 

 been tried, and often with good effect, on the supposition that the irritation 

 may exist in the fauces or the larynx. The blister has sometimes been extended 

 through the whole course of the windpipe, until it enters the chest. 



Feeding has much influence on this complaint. Too much dry meat, and 

 especially chaff, increase it. It is aggravated when the horse is suffered to 

 eat his litter ; and it is often relieved when spring tares are given. Carrots 

 afford decided relief. 



The seat of the disease, however, is so uncertain, and all our means and 

 appliances so inefficacious, and the cough itself so little interfering, and some- 

 times interfering not at all with the health of the animal, that it is scarcely worth 

 while to persevere in any mode of treatment that is not evidently attended with 

 benefit. The principal consideration to induce us to meddle at all with chronic 

 cough is the knowledge that horses afflicted with it are more liable than others 

 to be affected by changes of temperature, and that inflammation of the lungs, or 

 of the respiratory passages, often assumes in them a very alarming character ; 

 to which, perhaps, may be added, that a horse with chronic cough cannot be 

 warranted sound. 



When chronic cough chiefly occurs after eating, the seat of the disease is 

 evidently in the substance of the lungs. The stomach distended with food 

 presses upon the diaphragm, and the diaphragm upon the lungs ; and the lungs, 

 already labouring under some congestion, are less capable of transmitting the 

 air. In the violent effort to discharge their function, irritation is produced 

 and the act of coughing is the consequence of that irritation. 



The Veterinary Surgeon labours under great disadvantage in the treatment 

 of his patients. He must not only subdue the malady, but he must remove all 

 its consequences. He must leave his patient perfectly sound, or he has done 

 comparatively nothing. This is a task always difficult, and sometimes impossible 

 to be accomplished. The two most frequent consequences of severe chest 

 affections in the horse are recognised under the terms thick wind and broken 

 wind. The breathing is hurried in both, and the horse is generally much dis- 

 tressed when put upon his speed ; but it is simply quick breathing in the first, 



