234 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
all. Repeated experiments of this kind will gradually teach the 
young veterinarian what kind of healthy murmur he should expect 
from every kind of horse that is presented to him, and thus he 
will be better enabled to appreciate the diflerent sound exhibited 
under disease. 
Attention to Auscultation nr^ed. —Before Laennec had led the 
human practitioner to adopt the invaluable method of exploration, 
or the veterinarian had dreamed of such a mode of examination, 
the most useful guide we had in ascertaining the nature and pro¬ 
gress of disease in our dumb patients was the pulse. I think I 
can safely say, that for nearly a twelvemonth 1 daily studied the 
pulse of every horse in the Veterinary College, anxiously com¬ 
paring it with the age, breed, disease, and varying character of 
disease; and I look back on these hours as spent the most use 
fully of all in the preparation for professional duty. You, gentle¬ 
men, have now another guide fully as valuable in all the diseases 
of the chest. Avail yourselves of the same opportunity to derive 
from it all the advantage it can afford you. It will be time most 
profitably spent, and the recollection of it will be gratifying to you. 
In this perambulation of the hospital, and in the cultivation of 
morbid anatomy (not a succession of barbarous operations and 
experiments ; do not disgrace yourselves by them; they will not 
afford you matter for pleasing reflection hereafter;—in the culti¬ 
vation of morbid anatomy, I say) in the knacker’s yard, you will 
be laying a surer foundation for future reputation and useful¬ 
ness, than in the attendance on any lectures, however gifted the 
teacher. 
The Crepitus of Pneumonia. —Then make yourselves acquainted 
with the deep distant murmur presented by the healthy lung. 
If pneumonia exists to any considerable degree, this murmur 
will be changed for, or mingled with, as I observed in the last 
lecture, a curious crepitating sound. This once remarked, can¬ 
not well be mistaken. It is caused by the infiltration of blood 
into the air-cells ; its loudness and perfect character will represent 
the intensity of the disease, and the portion of the chest at which 
it can be distinguished will clearly indicate the extent of the 
disease. 
Hepatization. —The whole lung, however, is not always affected, 
or there are only portions or patches of it in which the inflamma¬ 
tion is so intense as to produce this congestion: enough remains 
either unaffected or yet pervious for the function of respiration 
to be performed, and the animal lingers on, or perhaps recovers. 
Then the process which I have just described will take place 
where the inflammation has been most intense. The serous por¬ 
tion of the blood will be absorbed, and the more solid will become 
