tiie 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIV, No. 163.] JULY 1841. [New Series, No. 103. 
RESPIRATION, 
ITS MECHANISM AND CHARACTERS ABSTRACTEDLY CONSIDERED. 
By Mr. R. Pritchard, F.S., Wolverhampton. 
[Continued from page 313.] 
I STATED, in my last paper, that the situation of roaring, as 
an ordinary affection, was in the larynx. That obstruction in 
any part of the respiratory tube may produce a roaring respira- 
tion, I do not for one moment question ; but the larynx alone is 
the seat of that alteration of structure productive of the impedi- 
ment and abnormal sound in horses designated and commonly 
understood by the appellation Roaring. All other cases are irre- 
gular and irrelevant to our inquiry. The larynx is the sound-box 
whence proceeds the healthy, soft, and natural blowing sound of 
respiration, and which I will term, for the sake of distinction, the 
Laryngeal murmur — also the voice of the horse, as neighing and 
whinnying. 
The different intonations are effected by the movements of the 
larynx upon the air in its passage through it. Those movements 
over which the animal has control enable him variously to modu- 
late the sounds of his throat ; and it is easy enough to conceive 
that very slight changes in the position, extent, and capacity of 
the larynx are capable of producing an audible difference in the 
character of the note or sound emitted. 
Topical inflammation of so low a grade of intensity as scarcely 
to be recognized as existing in the mucous surfaces of the glottis 
occasionally produces irrecoverable changes in the caliber of the 
passage ; and, sometimes, progresses very slowly, so that for a con- 
siderable period the horse’s defect either escapes detection, or he 
is only suspected of being not quite right in his wind. It is only 
by men who have had much experience, and paid the subject close 
vol. xiv. 3 c 
