ON BROKEN WIND IN A COW. 
87 
that in many cases it is a nervous or functional and not a struc- 
tural derangement that is the cause of this disease, or, possibly, 
some cases are really not disease of the air-passages at all. 
I am induced to express the opinion I now do from practical 
observation. It is common with horsedealers of a low class to 
purchase broken-winded horses at a low price, and set them , as 
they term it, and re-sell them at the country fairs, apparently 
sound, from the temporary effect of various articles they admi- 
nister to them by way of deceiving the public ; and so tranquil do 
they render their breathing for the time, that, even on the horse 
being gallopped, many excellent judges have been deceived and 
sadly mortified on the following morning. 
If the disease be the result of alteration of structure, how 
comes it that a few balls of hog’s lad, linseed-oil, or digitalis, 
&c. &c., produce such decided temporary relief? That such 
effects follow, surely no one will deny ; yet the structure is nei- 
ther repaired nor renewed. Then, Sir, what am I compelled to 
believe? Why, that in all cases where such marked benefit is 
derived (and I never heard of a case yet where those articles did 
not produce the effect of tranquillizing the respirations) the dis- 
ease is either sympathetic, nervous, or seated in the digestive 
organs. 
I have observed horses, particularly hunters, after having been 
kept in the stable for two or three years, if turned out at grass, 
frequently become broken-winded. What is the cause of this ? 
Is it in consequence of a diseased state of the alimentary canal ? 
— or is it a relaxed or debilitated state of the parenchyma of the 
lungs, induced by the change of diet, grass being much less nutri- 
tious than his usual stable diet? — or, is it to be attributed to the 
exposure of the surface of the skin to the action of the atmo- 
sphere ? 
I think the disease in question has been viewed in too mecha- 
nical a light. It is very easy to state that broken- wind is the 
effect of ruptured air-cells, or emphysema of the parenchymatous 
structure of the lungs. That such lesions do occasionally ex- 
ist, I will not deny ; but I believe that in the majority of cases 
they are an effect, and not a cause. For instance, on looking at 
the jerking action that takes place in the respiration of broken- 
winded horses, I can readily conceive that, in such a delicate 
tissue as the membranes surrounding the air-cells are known to 
be composed of, such heaving action would be likely to break 
down the membranes ; and thus those appearances noticed after 
death may be, in reality, an effect of morbid action, instead of a 
cause of it. Is it a loss of power in the diaphragm, or intercostal 
muscles connected with broken-wind ? — or is not its seat in the 
