History of Roaring. 3 



expel their breath chiefly at the nose. ... A horse will 

 cough pretty often, but especially upon every slight cold, 

 and at the same time is frequently troubled with a wheezing 

 and rattling in his pipes : all which proceeds from a thick 

 mucilaginous matter sticking in the branches of the wind- 

 pipe." And in Bracken's treatise,i published so late as the 

 Hiiddle of the last century, in pointing out the difference 

 in symptoms between a broken-winded horse, and one which 

 has "newly taken a cold," he observes that "upon motion 

 there will be a hissing, whistling sound, and greater heav- 

 ing of the flanks than in common colds. . . . Besides, the 

 cough does not sound so deep in pursiveness, but on the 

 contrary is a short tickling one, as if it were seated at the 

 upper part of the larynx." But Wallis," about the same 

 period, says that "wheezing," or "blowing," in horses is 

 quite different from "pursiveness." "For this wheezing 

 does not proceed from any defect in the lungs, but from the 

 narrowness of the passages between the bones and gristles 

 ■of the nose. And further, these horses do not want wind ; 

 for notwithstanding they blow so excessively when exer- 

 cised, yet their flanks will be but little moved, and in their 

 natural condition. There are other horses that are thick- 

 winded, that is, have their breathing a little more free than 

 the former ; but neither one noj: the other are agreeable, or 

 for any great service. Yet a person may be liable to a 

 mistake in the case ; for when a horse has been kept a long 

 time in the stable without exercise, he will at the first rid- 

 ing be out of breath, although he be neither a blower nor 

 thick-winded. There are some wheezers or blowers that 

 rattle and make a noise through the nose ; but this impedi- 

 ment goes and comes, and is only occasioned by abundance 

 of phlegmatic stuff; for their flanks will not redouble, 



1 " Farriery Improved ; or, a Compleat Treatise upon the Art of 

 Farriery," 7th edition, Loudon, 1752. 



- " The Farrier's and Horseman's Complete Dictionary," 3rd edition, 

 1775. 



1—2 



