BROKEN WIND. 955 
which assumes to protect it is a delusion; the animal is given up, help- 
less, friendless, and unpitied, to the almost unrestrained barbarity of its 
master. It is born doomed to live in solitude, to wear its life out under 
the goad, and to yield up existence in a knacker’s yard. 
“ Broken wind” is a sad affliction ; it is the more sad because no men 
but the very careless or the very poor will keep an animal thus diseased. 
The author has known it to be a frequent reason given by the better 
class of horse proprietors for having the life destroyed; which decision 
may have been quickeved by the fact that the horse is generally old 
before this disease appears. In the knowledge of the writer there is 
no recorded instance of a colt having ‘‘broken wind.” The malady is 
usually witnessed after the adult age has been attained, or during the 
latter period of life, whether the affection has been naturally induced or 
aggravated by the cruelty of man 
It is said to have been produced suddenly; thus a man has been 
reported to have ridden an untrained horse after the hounds, and so have 
provoked the disorder. Another is asserted to have galloped a nag with 
a stomach loaded either with food or water, and thus to have broken the 
wind. Doubtless the seeds of the disorder may by either process have 
been sown; but that the disease was fully developed after either incident, 
is more than doubtful. 
The seat of this affliction is not confined to any one organ; its ravage 
is universal. No part escapes; that the entire animal economy can 
change all at once, like a trick in a Christmas pantomime, is a circum- 
stance which has yet to be established. The malady is most general 
among the agricultural districts; the farmer’s poor team, in many parts 
of England, seldom tastes much of that which can be taken to market. 
Cut grass constitutes its chief summer food; the coat is rarely groomed ; 
the stable often left open, and only cleaned when manure is wanted. 
During the winter months the animals have to luxuriate in the straw- 
yard; the body’s abuse, in such horses, may readily lead to the body’s 
degeneration. Green-meat will not support the strength, though upon 
it the life may be sustained. The occupiers of the soil would find it to 
their account, could the class be brought to bestow a little more atten- 
tion upon their living property. The years of labor would be prolonged, 
and the activity of the laborer be quickened; fewer horses need then be 
kept, and the anxieties of the farmer would be lightened. Agricultural 
teams would not then be encountered slowly creeping along the high- 
way, and sleeping as they journeyed. Care naturally begets pride, and 
worth generally resides where pride is exhibited. Increased value would 
reward the farmer, whose animals would not then so often present the 
spectacle of horses doing slow work, being touched in the wind. 
