132 Roaring in Horses. 



disposing to the affection as is often imagined it has, and 

 there is no reason why it should, so long as it is not of a 

 toxic nature. 



2. Medical and Surgical Treatment of Roaring. 



What is called the " cure " of chronic Roaring, has formed 

 a very vexed subject in veterinary medicine, and has 

 engaged the earnest attention of the majority of dis- 

 tinguished veterinarians. A detailed account of the 

 attempts made to get rid of the noise in respiration 

 would form a curious chapter in the history of perplexed 

 " cure-hunters." 



Percivall, who knew little or nothing of the pathology of 

 Roaring, in 1841 expressed the opinion that its successful 

 treatment was hopeless, especially in cases of long duration, 

 no matter what causes they might be due to. " Also 

 such as there appears any reason to believe hereditary, or 

 dependent upon an original malformation of parts. Cases 

 of distortion are equally irremediable when the distortion 

 has existed so long as to destroy the original form and 

 properties of parts, and in their place to have established 

 fresh ones. Such can only be benefited by the French 

 treatment, which consists in the performance of bron- 

 chotomy, or tracheotomy as they more properly call it. 

 They make a large aperture, and use a proportionally large 

 tube, so constructed and adapted that the animal can not 

 only breathe through it, but do his work, and gallop with it 

 in his neck." 



From Percivall's time up to a quite recent period, little 

 has been done in the way of treatment for the defect, and 

 that little has been, as a rule, of the most empirical kind : 

 due to the fact that the morbid conditions upon which 

 Roaring depends were unknown or not understood. 



Attempts at removal of the defect have seldom been made, 

 even in the case of most valuable animals ; and for many 



