THOUGHTS ON BROKEN WIND. 
63 
is always found pale and thin, and it is not difficult to imagine 
why. We will suppose the lungs to be in an emphysematous 
condition. Whatever air escapes out of the diseased portion is 
very small in quantity, and, no doubt, a great deal is absolutely 
imprisoned. The lungs are gorged with this air, and cannot get 
rid of it; and this leaves a much smaller portion of healthy 
lung to do the work of respiration. The lungs are enlarged to 
such an extent that they keep the sides distended, as we may 
see by the apparently increased size of the chest, and the pro¬ 
minence of the ribs and the spaces between them, through the 
absorption of the intercostals, which are in a manner paralyzed. 
Added to all this, the enlarged and diseased lungs press back¬ 
wards upon the diaphragm (and very likely displace the heart), 
and so interfere greatly with its motions in respiration. In 
inspiration, the diaphragm is obliged to contract to the utter¬ 
most, to allow of sufficient air getting into the lungs ; and in the 
act of expiration, it is violently pressed upon by the contents of 
the abdomen, forced against it by the abdominal muscles. The 
sudden contraction and the great recession it has to make back¬ 
wards, to make room for the lungs again in inspiration, becomes 
evident to us by the sudden flop and fall of the belly, in con¬ 
sequence of the action of the abdomen supervening on that of the 
diaphragm. No wonder this muscle becomes completely worn 
out and exhausted : indeed, all muscular structures seem to 
partake of this debility, witness the sphincter ani, &c. 
Chronic Bronchitis , however produced, I look upon to be the 
fertile source of broken wind ; whether we consider it to arise 
during a turgescent state of the membrane, when mucu* may 
obstruct the bronchial passages, and the cough give rise to rupture 
of the air-cells by the resistance the air meets with in its 
passage through the narrowed or obstructed tubes*, or as the 
result of a diseased condition of the blood and the bronchial 
membranes (a kind of chronic bronchitis), when the blood may 
issue air into the substance of the lungs; or, lastly, whether we 
take Professor Sewell’s opinion, and regard it as a state of atrophy 
of the investing muscular structure and lining membrane of the 
bronchi. 
In support of chronic bronchitis being the most fertile cause 
of broken wind, I would instance how often we find a certain 
description of roarers, viz. icheezers, or thick-winded horses 
(which is only another name for chronic bronchitis), eventually 
become so; whilst instances of broken wind supervening on 
* This result has been noticed by the celebrated Laennec, and by the French 
veterinarians Godine, Rodet, and Delafond; and it is possible that air might 
get admission, and create an interlobulary emphysema, through the ulceration 
and perforation of the bronchial membrane. 
