TIUCK-WIND. 195 



or continued speed. The inspirations and the expirations are 

 shorter, as well as more violent ; the air must he more rapidly 

 admitted, and more thoroughly pressed out ; and this is accom- 

 panied by a peculiar sound that can rarely be mistaken. 



The iuflajnomatory stage of the disease having passed, the horse 

 is restored to comparative health, but in a thick-winded state. 

 Auscultation wiU indicate the amount of the hepatization, and it 

 ■will enable us to distinguish between this cause of thick-wind 

 and that thickening of the air-passages which sometimes results 

 from bronchitis. 



Of the treatment, little can be said. We know nof by what 

 means we can excite the absorbents to take up the solid organ- 

 ized mass of hepatization, or restore the membrane of the cells, 

 and the minute vessels ramifying over them, now confounded 

 and lost. We have a somewhat better chance, and yet not much, 

 in removing the thickening of the membrane, for counter-irritants, 

 extensively and perseveringly applied to the external parietes of 

 the chest, may do something. If thick-wind immediately fol- 

 lowed bronchitis, it would certainly be justifiable practice to blis- 

 ter the brisket and sides, and that repeatedly ; and to administer 

 purgatives, if we dared, or diuretics, more effectual than the pur- 

 gatives, and always safe. 



Our attention must be principally confined to diet and man- 

 agement. A thick-vidnded horse should have his full proportion, 

 or rather more than his proportion of grain, and a diminished 

 quantity of less nutritious food, in order that the stomach may 

 never be overloaded; and press upon the diaphragm, and so upon 

 the lungs, and increase the Jabor of these already over-worked 

 organs. Particular care should be taken that the horse is not 

 worked immediately after a full meal. The overcoming of the 

 pressure and weight of the stomach, wUl be a serious addition to 

 the extra work which the lungs already have to perform from 

 their altered structure. 



Thick-wind may be to some extent palliated by daily exer 

 cising the horse to the fair extent of his power, and without seri- 

 ously distressing him. 



Thick-wind, however, is not always the consequence of disease. 

 There are certaifi cloddy, roimd-chested horses, that are naturallj 

 thick- vdnded, at least to a certain extent. They are capable oi 

 that slow exertion for which nature designed them, but they art 

 immediately distressed if put a little out of their usual pace. A 

 circular chest, whether the horse is large or small, indicates thick 

 wmd. 



