THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIII, No. 147.] MARCH 1840. [New Scries, No. 87. 
ON DISEASES OF THE LUNGS IN HORSES. 
By Wm. Percivall, Esq.^ M.R.C.S., and Veterinary Surgeon 
to the Regiment of Life Guards. 
PULMONARY disorders in horses bear even a larger proportion 
to the number of other maladies than in our own persons. Putting- 
accidents and lamenesses out of the question, we shall find a large 
majority of the cases presented to us for treatment to be diseases 
of the pulmonary apparatus; and the most fatal of them to be 
those which attack the lungs and their enveloping membrane, 
the pleura. These diseases also evince in horses a rapidity of 
destructive course, which is not the case with them in men. In 
our bodies they are rather apt, by slow degrees, to bring their 
victims to their end; while they will hurry horses off even after 
but a few hours’ duration, and in despite, too, of every measure 
which medical skill can devise. This, of course, on our part calls 
for corresponding alertness and decision in our therapeutics; and 
the more so, seeing that it is not only required of us to save life, 
but to save organs, and in that normal state, too, in which they 
may be so fit to carry on their functions that the animal can do 
his work nearly or quite as well as ever. If he is left with im¬ 
perfection in his wind, I am afraid we shall derive but little credit 
by the cure, even though we may have been the means of pre¬ 
serving life. 
Predisposition to pulmonary disease is observed to exist in 
horses of certain age, form, and temperament. Young undomi¬ 
ciled horses arc incomparably more subject to them than such as 
are aged and seasoned. And such as are high-bred and tenderly 
reared, and have light carcasses, long legs, flat sides, and breasts 
so narrow that both fore-legs seem as though they “ emerged 
from one hole,” and possess thin skins, are indisputably more 
susceptible than those of a different breed and opposite con¬ 
formation. 
VOL. Xlll. Q 
