RESPIRATION. 
199 
mach and other intestines much inflamed, but decomposition had 
not there proceeded so far. The whole of the serous membrane of 
the intestines healthy ; so that the intestines might have been 
thrown aside as free from disease, if their mucous membrane had 
not been examined. The large intestines contained a considerable 
quantity of offensive fluid, bloody mucus, and faecal matter. 
The liver was congested, soft, and black ; as was also the 
spleen. 
Lungs. — The pleura pulmonalis et costalis of a grass green 
colour at every part where they are in contact. The mucous mem- 
brane of the trachea and large bronchi gangrenous. The right lobe 
a mass of almost disorganized black foetid matter. The internal 
membrane of the heart highly inflamed ; and both ventricles and 
auricles filled with black blood. Bloody effusion in the thorax 
and the pericardium. 
RESPIRATION, 
ITS MECHANISM AND CHARACTERS ABSTRACTEDLY CONSIDERED. 
By Mr. R. Pritchard, V.S., Wolverhampton. 
Messrs. Editors, — I know of but few if any subjects of more 
importance to the veterinary surgeon than the movements of re- 
spiration ; and I have chosen it for this present article from the 
circumstance of teachers and authors usually mixing up thes(* 
phenomena with the general physiology of the lungs, evolution of 
animal heat, circulation of the blood, &c. It is indispensable to 
a clear illustration of the performance of respiration to give a 
brief description of the apparatus by which this all-important 
and vital function is executed ; and notwithstanding I am writing 
to a class of readers whom I presume to be acquainted with the 
anatomy of the respiratory organs and the ordinary effects of the 
process of breathing, still it is a subject pregnant with a volume 
of the most important information, and we cannot too frequently 
have our attentions directed to it, or become too deeply and 
intimately acquainted with its operations. 
First presenting itself to our conception is the bony frame- 
work of the chest, bounded above and superiorly by the spine 
and ribs, as far as their angles — below and rather anteriorly by 
the costal cartilages and sternum — laterally by the sides and 
bodies of the eighteen ribs; and posteriorly by a musculo-ten- 
dinous plane, the diaphragm. The interstices between the ribs 
