Bo4 A CASE OF RUPTURE OF THE LUNGS IN A PONY. 
same force on either side. The beats were pretty regularly 45 
in the minute. The inspirations and expirations were very un¬ 
equal ; the act of expiration occupying four times the period of 
that of inspiration, and being extremely laborious. 
Such was the appearance of the pony when I saw him on 
Friday morning, the 17th instant; and I was informed by the 
veterinary surgeon in attendance, that there had been very little 
variation in the symptoms from the first hour he had seen him, 
which was immediately after his removal into the box. 
The treatment consisted in the administration of laxative medi¬ 
cine, combined with febrifuge, and clysters every two hours until 
the bowels were opened. He began to purge in the early part of 
the following morning, and the action of the bowels was kept up 
by means of occasional clysters until Saturday morning about five 
o’clock, when the pony died. Towards the latter part of the 
case his uneasiness increased ; but the symptoms were never of 
so violent a character as to induce a bystander to conclude that 
the animal Vv^as suffering any great degree of pain. 
Post-mortem examination exhibited the abdominal viscera in 
perfect health, except that the liver was rather paler than it is 
usually. The animal was excessively fat internally, which I scarcely 
expected from its appearance when alive. On removing the 
diaphragm, which was also quite sound, and taking out the 
lungs, we found very considerable laceration of the connect¬ 
ing cellular substance of the lobuli of the lungs. The lobuli 
were, in a manner, torn from each other in lines from the 
edge towards the centre of the lung, and extending, in some 
places, three or four inches towards the centre. The lesion 
seemed to be nearly equal on the anterior and posterior surface, 
dipping deep into the substance of the lung, but not reaching 
quite to the middle. There was the slightest possible effusion 
of blood ; not three drops w^ere extravasated. The pleura was 
sound ; but there was very great extrication of air betw een it and 
the lung, and in the direction of the principal lesions. There were 
two points of adhesion to the ribs at the convex surface of each 
lobe, and exactly corresponding with each other : with this ex¬ 
ception, the contents of the chest were free from disease. 
When I first saw this case, there could be no doubt about the 
spasmodic action of the diaphragm; but the apparent cause of 
it, the violent fit of coughing, led me to suspect more than in¬ 
creased irritability of that muscle ; and I concluded that I should 
find some laceration or rupture of it. I was not, however, pre¬ 
pared for this lesion of the lungs; but the cause of that lesion is 
now evident enough,^ and the cause of the spasmodic working 
of the diaphragm, and of the excessive force with which it con- 
