ASTHMA. 377 



Give carrots. Substitute freshly-cut grass and lucerne for dry hay. 

 Bruise the com and damp it, or, better still, mix through it, say, 

 a pound of boiled linseed, or a quarter of a pint of linseed oil. 

 Attend to the horse's general health and to the proper ventilation 

 of the stable. Keep him short of food and water before being 

 worked; though, when doing continuous work for some hours, 

 small quantities of gruel or water, given occasionally, are of 

 benefit. Total deprivation of water at such times, is almpst as 

 bad as giving it in excess. 



An ounce of liquor arsenicalis, increased up to two ounces, mixed 

 daily in the food for a fortnight, might be tried. A pound of lard 

 or butter, wliich may be given in balls, acts in abating the distress 

 for a few hours. Horse copers sometimes endeavour to pass off a 

 broken-winded animal as sound, by giving him, a short time before 

 examination, a number of balls of fat, or a quantity of shot, which 

 acts as a sedative. 



A . good tonic for broken wind is to give every morning a,nd 

 evening for about two months, ^ grain of strychnine arseniate, 4 

 grains of arseniate of iron, and 30 grains of iodide of potassium 

 in a pint of ale. 



Damp forage is recommended in this complaint. Referring to 

 palliative measures, I will only cite damped hay, green food, and, 

 above all, forage wet with molasses and water. This last regimen, 

 employed often in the north of France, has given very satisfactory 

 results. 



Broken wind is a grave unsoundness. 



Asthma. 



This very rare equine disease is a chronic condition which is 

 characterised by paroxysms of distressed breathing that come on 

 at more or less regular periods. 



With our present state of knowledge, we cannot say whether or not the 

 causes of asthma are the same in all cases. The two most probable theories 

 ave those of spasm, and of engorgement. By the former, the paroxysms are 

 supposed to be caused by the spasmodic and more or less continued con- 

 traction of the muscles that surround the small air-tubes, which condition 

 interferes with the act of breathing, by closing, to a. greater or less extent, 

 these air-passages. The contraction of these muscles appears to take place 

 during inspiration. The muscles which surround the small ^ air-tubes may 

 become so developed from continued exercise, that they may cause a 

 permanent narrowing of the calibre of these passages. Owing to the action 

 of the irritated nerVes, the circulation in the lungs wiU become impeded, 

 and we may have a certain amount of dropsy in these organs, on account 

 of the increased exudation of watery fluid which escapes fom the congested 

 blood-vessels. Prom difficulty of expiration during the paroxysms, 

 emphysema of the lungs is a probable result of asthma. By the second 

 theory (that of engorgement), the difficulty of breathing is accounted for, 



