BROKEN WIND. 
407 
the lungs. Vitet attributed it to the introduction of air and of 
blood into the tissue of the lungs; and Bourgelat, to obstruction 
of the vessels of the chest, and a vitiated state of the lungs. 
Among ourselves, old Bracken artfully entrenched himself, by 
saying, that ‘‘ broken wind in horses is what, in human crea¬ 
tures, we call asthmatic and phthisicky.” Blunt traced it to 
the relaxation, and thinness, and feebleness of the diaphragm, 
with an enlaro;ed state of the lungs and heart. Bartlet and Gib- 
son likewise attributed it to hypertrophy of the heart. One of 
Gibson’s disciples, Mr. Knowlson, fifty-seven years in full busi¬ 
ness, enters so thoroughly into the opinion of his predecessor, that 
I cannot refrain from quoting his version*. It is frequently 
owing to the hasty or injudicious feeding of young horses for 
sale, by which means the growth of the lungs, and all the con¬ 
tents of the chest, are so much enlarged, that, in a few years, 
the cavity of the chest is not sufficient to contain them, when 
they expand themselves to perform their proper function. Horses 
rising eight years are most subject to it; for, at six, the horse 
generally finishes his growth in height, and after that he lets 
down his belly and spreads, and all his parts gain their full size; 
so that the pressure upon the lungs and midriff is now increased. 
Dissections of horses that have died broken-winded sufficiently 
prove the truth of the above observations ; and in some of them 
the disproportion of them has been so great, that the heart and 
lungs have been almost twice their natural size.” Horses are 
very differently constructed now; for we do not find this strange 
disproportionate bulk of the thoracic viscera; but we do find that 
which these excellent morbid anatomists mistook for hypertro¬ 
phy, an emphysematous state of the lungs, not admitting of that 
degree of collapse which the pressure of the atmospheric air 
would otherwise have occasioned. I once saw a case in which 
Ihe lungs did not collapse at all on the opening of the chest. 
The horse had had broken wind to a most annoying degree. 
Origin of the present prevailing Opinion .—The majority of 
veterinary surgeons attribute broken wind to an emphysematous 
state of the lungs. In the year 1795, Mr. Coleman was dissect¬ 
ing a mare that had been destroyed on account of inveterate 
broken wind. Mr. Bracy Clark was standing by, with the 
pupils of the Veterinary College. The lungs were free from 
inflammation, and white ; and it was considered, at first, that 
they were not the seat of the disorder ; until some one observed 
a small bladder or vesicle on the outside of the lungs, in the 
external investing pleuritic coat. It was at first mistaken for a 
* Kiiowlson’s Complete Farrier and Horse Doctor, p. 46 . 
