346 THE HORSE. 



of them. In plcuritis there is a quick pulse, with general consti- 

 tutional disturbance, which will serve to distinguish it from pleuro- 

 dynia, besides which, it is rarely that we meet with the former 

 without some other affection of the lungs co-existing. When, 

 therefore, a horse is evident]}' suffering from acute pain in the 

 walls of the thorax, unaccompanied by cough, hurried breathing, 

 quick pulse, or fever, it may safely be diagnosed that the nature 

 of the attack is a rheumatism of the intercostal muscles (pleuro- 

 dynia), and not pleurisy. In treating it, bleeding and tartar emetic 

 must be carefully avoided, and hot mustard and vinegar rubbed 

 into the sides will be the most likely remedy to afford relief. 



PHTHISIS. 



When a horse has long been subject to a chronic cough, 

 and, without losing appetite, wastes away rapidly, it may be assumed 

 that he is a victim to phthisis, and especially if he is narrow- 

 chested and has long shown signs of short wind. On examining 

 ... , ^ 



the chest by the car, it will be found to give out sounds of various 



kinds, depending upon the exact state of the lungs ; but in most 

 cases there will be great dulness on percussion, owing to the 

 deposit of tubercles, in which the disease consists. In a confirmed 

 case no treatment will avail, and the poor animal had better be 

 destroyed. When the attack is slight, the progress of the disease 

 may be stayed by counteracting inflammation in the ordinary way, 

 avoiding loss of blood when possible. Haemorrhage, from the 

 breaking down of the substance of the lung, by which a large 

 blood-vessel is opened, is a common result of phthisis, and will be 

 alluded to under the head of diseases of the vessels of the lungs, 

 at the end of this chapter. 



BROKEN WIND. 



A broken-winded iiorse can be detected at once by any 

 horseman possessed of experience, from the peculiar and forcible 

 double expiration. Inspiration is performed as usual, then comes 

 a rapid but not violent act of expiration, followed by a forcible 

 repetition of the same, in which all the muscles of respiration, 

 auxiliary and ordinary, are called into play. This is, of course, 

 most marked when the horse has been gallopped, but even when 

 he is at rest the double expiration is manifest at almost any ordi- 

 nary distance from the observer. The disease almost (if not quite) 

 invariably consists in emphysema, or entrance of the air into 

 unnatural cells, which is retained there, as the urine is in the 

 bladder, from the valvular nature of the openings, and cannot be 

 entirely expelled, nor in the slightest degree, without calling into 

 play all the muscles of the chest. The presence of unchanged air 

 is a constant source of irritation to the lungs, and although suffi- 



