BROKEN WIND. 
Hi 
ing to have by me the best, I believe, French dictionary ot 
terms used in medicine, surgery, Sec. I turned to the word alter- 
ation, and 1 found the following explanation : “ Alteration of 
the flank, when the movements of the flank are frequent and 
irregular,” a very conveniently vague manner of explaining the 
term — at least when it is adopted by a veterinary surgeon. It is 
a very comfortable thing always to have a loop-hole for escape. 
The gentleman meant to say, that there was some disease of 
the chest: it did not suit him to state what disease it actually was, 
but he was sure that it was not broken-wind. 
After him follows the learned Professor, and he, like many 
other professors of all arts, takes a great deal of care of himself, 
and never says that which will not, with a little ingenuity, bear 
two opposite meanings. M. Renault says, that “the mare was 
not sound, but that she was not broken-winded.” A truly 
luminous and professor-like expose. 
The purchaser wished to return the mare because she was 
broken-winded, he comes to the point at once ; but because his 
own veterinary adviser will own to nothing more than “ an alter- 
ation of the flank” — manifest unsoundness, however it might be 
explained — and M. Renault, while he confesses the mare to be 
unsound, will not allow her to be broken-winded, the seller 
will have nothing to do with her. He was justly punished for 
his dishonesty. He was compelled to take her back, and pay 
all costs of suit. 
The purchaser had gone the right way to work : he procured 
the certificates of twelve veterinary surgeons, to which were 
added those of the three “ experts” to w r hom, in these cases, 
the matter is always referred by the tribunal. I send you these 
certificates as extracted from the “Journal de Rouen.” They 
were interesting to me, and much enlightened me on the subject of 
broken-wind. It is not often that you would get so many cer- 
tificates bearing on the same point; and I send them to you, as 
giving your readers — containing, I hope and believe, almost all the 
veterinary surgeons in Great Britain — some notion how French 
veterinarians conduct the business of certificates. 
“ I, the undersigned Joseph Lebert, Veterinary Surgeon at Neuf- 
bourg, do certify that M. Delarville, jun., requested me to 
examine a mare, &c. And after an attentive examination, 
during as long a time as I wished, I have ascertained that 
the mare is in a state of perfect health ; but, nevertheless, 
there is in her flank a decided ‘ contre-temps ou souhresaut 
a symptom characteristic of broken-wind, and, therefore, I 
declare her to be broken-winded. 
“Rouen, 25th May, 1835.” 
VOL. IX. 
M 
