BROKEN WIND. 
411 
A rapid gallop on a full stomach has often produced broken 
wind. When the exertion has been rapid and long, I can easily 
conceive a rupture of the air-cells of the soundest lungs ; but I 
am inclined to believe, that, were the history of these cases 
knowm, there would be found to have been a gradual preparation 
for this result; there would have been chronic cough, or more 
than usually disturbed lespiration after exertion, and then it re¬ 
quired little more to perfect the mischief. Galloping after drink¬ 
ing has been censured as a cause of broken wind, yet I cannot 
think that it is half so dangerous as galloping with a stomach 
distended by solid food. Old Dr. Grey relates a curious story 
of a horse having been cured of broken wind by a brushing gal¬ 
lop after watering. He says that a certain groom, who had 
a horse under his care, kept him from drinking for two or three 
days, giving him all that time as much hay and other provender 
os he would eat ; then he leaped upon his back and rode him to 
water, w'here he suffered him to drink his fill : then he clapped 
spurs to him, and galloped full speed till the poor creature fell 
down for want of breath, and lay some time as if he was dead. 
As soon as he recovered wind, the groom gave him more water, 
and galloped him a second time until he fell, and so a third. 
Well; w’hen the horse had recovered his wind a little, he fell to 
coughing very much, and, by the violence of the shake, cast out 
of his windpipe and mouth a lump of congealed phlegmatic 
stuff of a good bigness, after which the gelding was freed from 
the distemper.” The author says he heardThis from a worthy 
honest farmer, w'ho had it from the very groom that performed. 
We, I think, should require better evidence to induce us to 
believe this story, and many an instance of the success of this 
treatment to persuade us to adopt it. 
Foul Feeding .—It is said that broken-winded horses are foul 
feeders, because they devour almost every thing that comes in 
their way, and thus impede the play of the lungs; but there is 
so much sympathy between the respiratory and digestive systems, 
that one cannot be much deranged without the other evidently 
suffering. Flatulence, and a depraved appetite, may be the con¬ 
sequence as well as the cause of broken wind; and there is no 
pathological fact of more frequent occurrence than the co-exist¬ 
ence of indigestion and flatulence with broken wind. Flatu¬ 
lence seems so invariable a concomitant of broken wind, that 
the old farriers used to think, that by some inexplicable way the 
air found its way from the lungs to the abdomen ; and thence 
their “ holes to let out broken wind.” They used literally to 
bore a hole near to or above the fundament to give vent to the 
imprisoned wind. The sphincter muscle was generally divided ; 
