44 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
short, and the animal, even when eating good food, may suddenly stop eat- 
ing and soon commence (in such cases an examination should be made to 
ascertain if there are not sharp edges on the teeth to be filed down, or 
whether there is not a thorn or other foreign matter to be removed). 
Breathing.—lt being well known that any disorder in a_horse’s 
breathing depreciates his value very much, this subject should be well 
studied. Breathing consists of two parts—the taking in and the expelling 
of air, marked by the swelling and falling in of the flanks, which should 
be even and barely perceptible. Symptoms of disordered breathing area 
cold nose (in ordinary circumstances) or nostrils unusually red, dry and hot, 
or giving out a discharge with or without bad odor; raw or ulcerated nos- 
trils, the breathing though being perhaps interrupted by swelling, mucus, 
or warty growths in them; dry, short, or spasmodic coughs; sneezing; 
‘coughs, with phlegm-discharges, and short, obstructed, or painful breath- 
ing. Breathing is most rapid in young animals. It becomes more rapid 
by overloading the stomach and by other causes which impede the action of 
the lungs. Any excitement, as a fright or exercise, will have a like effect. 
By a test on one horse which normally breathed ten times to the minute, 
the number was nearly trebled after a walk of a few hundred yards; after 
a trot of five minutes, the respirations exceeded fifty, resuming their natural 
conditions after three minutes of rest; by a gallop of ‘five minutes. the 
number was extended to sixty-five for one minute. 
A quick, short respiration denotes pain, most probably in the intestines, 
and a catching and interrupted respiration indicates pleurisy. 
The respiration in which the heaving of the flanks is seen at a dis- 
tance is a sign of inflammation either in or about the lungs. 
The respiration in which the rising of the flanks is suddenly cut short, 
and the expulsion of the air performed by two efforts successively of the 
muscles of the belly, indicates broken wind; but may also be seen in in- 
fluenza in horses having heart-disease. 
Deep breathing indicates water in the chest. 
Retarded respiration usually attends diseases of the brain. 
The breathing of most animals in health is through the nostrils, with 
the mouth shut, is noiseless and without any manifestation except that of 
the slow, prolonged heaving of the chest in the larger animals, and the 
still, even, and regular though quicker movements of the chest in the 
smaller ones. The latter can breathe either through the nostrils or the 
mouth, but the horse is prevented by the formation of the soft palate from 
inhaling by the mouth; he therefore has extended nostrils to admit a large 
supply of air. In disease the nostrils may be contracted or widely opened 
at each inspiration; the breathing may be too quick, short, labored, irregu- 
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