HAT ASTHMA. 289 



Hay Asthma in the human being prevails only during the 

 months of June and Jidy, and is generally supposed to be 

 caused by the effluvium which arises from certain grasses, whUe 

 in the process of drying and being prepared for hay. 



Hay Asthma in horses, on the contrary, is not limited in 

 its manifestation to one or two months of the year ; but so far 

 as I have been hitherto enabled to perceive, it is alike common 

 to every month. Neither is it caused by the mere effluvium of 

 the hay, but from a peculiar active principle, resident within 

 one or more of its grasses, and which is liberated and rendered 

 active within the animal by the process of digestion. 



The existence of this disease appears to have been not 

 only entirely unknown, but not even suspected by any of our 

 veterinary writers, from the time of old Gervase Markham to 

 the latest authority — ^viz., Mr. W. Percival. I have treated 

 numbers of cases of this disease, and in numerous instances 

 with perfect success. Por a long time I regarded them as cases 

 of Broken Wind, and was sanguine in the belief that I could 

 cure Broken Wind : experience, however, based upon an exten- 

 sive observation of facts, has led me to perceive that my prior 

 conclusions were erroneous. Broken Wind I hold to be Emphy- 

 sema of ike Lungs — a state of these organs which may to some 

 extent allow of being palliated, but which it is utterly beyond 

 the power of medicine to cure. 



To contend that Broken Wind is this or that form of dis- 

 ease, and to enumerate a number of states and symptoms which 

 have but a mere resemblance to each other in one or two 

 common features, is to alike confuse the question and the mind 

 of the reader. Let us, where possible, have definite names for 

 diseases and states of the organism, which are clear and expres- 

 sive to the common sense of every one engaged in the practice 

 of our art. 



