THE 
VOL. XIII, No. 148.] APRIL 1840. [New Series, No. 88. 
ON DISEASES OF THE LUNGS IN HORSES. 
By Wm. Percivall, Esq., M.R.C.S., and Veterinary Surgeon 
to the \st Regiment of Life Guards. 
[Continued from p. 120.] 
AUSCULTATION. 
AUSCULTATION—from nuscultare, to listen—consists in the perception, 
by the mediate or immediate application of the ear, of the different sounds mani¬ 
fested in the lungs, with a view of determining the normal or anormal con¬ 
dition of those organs, and, in the latter case, of aiding our opinion on their 
diseases. 
Mediate Auscultation is effected through the medium of the stetho¬ 
scope ; immediate, through the direct application of the ear to the air-tuhe, or 
to the walls of the cavity of the chest. We prefer immediate to mediate aus¬ 
cultation for the following reasons:—1st, It is extremely inconvenient to 
apply; 2dly, Supposing however, this were not the case, the stethoscope pos¬ 
sessing no power of augmenting the sound, but only being the means of con¬ 
veying it more directly to the ear, no advantage attends the use of the instru¬ 
ment ; 3dly, In human medicine the application of the ear would prove 
cbjcctionable both to surgeon and patient, hence the adoption of the stetho¬ 
scope : this is not our case. 
Immediate Auscultation. —During examination the animal should be 
kept quiet: his attention may be engaged by a little hay or corn. During the 
silence of the night is the auscultator’s best time. The car should be lightly 
and accurately applied. After all, should the sound remain indistinct, the 
respiration may be increased by exercise. The nasal cavities, the larynx, the 
trachea, and the lungs, are the parts to be auscultated ; and the modifications 
of the healthy sounds must be well studied in order not to confound them 
with such as arise under disease. 
The Respiratory Murmur is the sound heard within the parenchyma of 
the lungs during the entry and exit of the air, or rather at the time of their 
dilatation and contraction. The sound is difficult to describe : once heard, 
however, in a young well-bred lean horse, it is not likely to be forgotten : by 
exertion it may be rendered still more characteristic. In a state of health 
even, it will be found to vary w'ith age, condition, tcmpcraincnt and breeding. 
In the young it is strongest. In human practice, its intense sound in infants 
is designated jnmrile respiration. Leblanc proposes in young animals to call 
it juvenile. In the aged it is hardly perceptible. The disposition of the pul¬ 
monary air-cells in tljc young, adult, and old animals, as shewn by Majcndic, 
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