CHAPTER V. 
THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 
COUGH. 
i OUGH has so many forms, and is so frequent a symptom that a de- 
ip tailed study of it is very important, to determine its seat and cause. 
\ It is caused by inflammation of some part of the membrane lining 
= the lungs and air-passages; teething; organic trouble in the viscera 
of the chest; nervous disorder; foreign substance in the breathing-apparatus, 
and the like. It may be acute, then being usually a symptom of catarrh, 
bronchitis, pneumonia, or other similar affection, and disappearing with the 
disease which causes it; or it may be chronic, as a result of some form of 
the acute, or as originally a simple cough, and is less easily cured than the 
acute. The following are the principal kinds of cough with their symptoms, 
condensed in the main from the “Veterinary Vade Mecum :”— 
I. (a.) From teething: Loud, ringing and clear, mainly in the morn- 
ing and at night, met with in horses four and five years of age, probably 
dependent upon nervous irritation from cutting of the tushes; mouth hot; 
bars of palate full, as in lampas; tenderness in eating grain; general health 
seemingly good, as well as the spirits. (6.) If the cough results from the 
pharynx, fauces, and glands near them, it is moist, heavy-sounding, long, 
and apparently hanging in the throat; at first it may be dry and short, but 
a change soon comes on from a return of the secretion in increased quanti- 
ties. (c¢.) If the cough arises from the membrane lining the darynx, it is 
fitful, and may easily be produced by pressing on the top of the windpipe; 
when resulting from the laryngeal membrane, the cough is hard, and has a 
metallic, ringing sound, followed by a long, harsh catching of breath, pro- 
ducing a noise akin to that of a roarer when on the canter; when resulting 
from disorder of the recurrent nerve, it is. dry, loud, and spasmodic, often 
chronic, becoming loose and less painful upon the return of the secretion. 
(d.) If the cough results from an increase in the secretion of the membrane 
lining the wézdpzfe, it will be long and moist, though frequent, sometimes 
with a thick, white discharge from the nose or mouth. On the other hand, 
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