16 
THOUGHTS ON BROKEN WIND. 
"We shall report particularly and separately the following 
alterations which Godine has noticed in the autopsy of a 
stallion horse affected with most violent broken wind for many 
months:— 
“The lungs pale, the left lobe shewing many points of indu¬ 
ration in its parenchymatous tissue, principally at the place where 
it touched the pericardium. The diaphragmatic portion of the 
right lobe crepitating, and dilated by molecules of air accumulated 
under masses of the pleura. The lymphatic ganglions placed 
at the bifurcation of the pulmonary lobes, hard at the circum¬ 
ference, but softened in their centre, containing fluid of a russet 
colour. Pericardium very spacious, but healthy. Heart very 
large. The capacities of the right and left cavities very dif¬ 
ferent ; the exact measure of the auricle and ventricle on the 
right side being double that of the cavities on the left side ; the 
internal and muscular wall of the right auricle much thinner, 
hard, very dilated, and covered with large fibro-cartilaginous 
spots. The same alteration existed in the external and internal 
wall of the right ventricle: it was equally dilated beyond the 
ordinary proportion. The left auriculo-ventricular cavities, or 
arterial, much confined,and their lining membrane thickened; the 
valves and the fleshy eminences converted into a fibro-carti¬ 
laginous substance, much thickened, and very pale.” 
Hurtrel D’Arboval followed up these observations by the 
post-mortem examination of two very bad cases of broken wind, 
in which, after the most careful search, he found the heart to be 
very large, and the pulmonary artery very dilated. He was so 
struck with this pathological appearance, that, in an abridged 
dictionary of medical science which he brought out, under the 
head broken wind, he defined it to be the consequence of 
“ an organic lesion of the heart; particularly in a defect in the 
natural proportions between the right cavities, which receive 
the venous blood, and the left cavities, which receive the arterial 
blood coming from the lungs; that the left cavities being di¬ 
minished in extent, in consequence of a diseased state, whereby 
they could not admit all the blood which had been arterialized 
in the lungs, these organs became necessarily surcharged 
with blood, by its being thrown back upon them, creating a 
distress to the animal, especially in the expiratory movement, of 
which the double heave (or soubresant ), which indicates broken 
wind, is the characteristic sign.” 
The remarks of Girard and Rodet follow on the same point, 
and to the same purpose ; and they, in summing up the various 
causes of broken wind, place diseases of the heart and blood¬ 
vessels in the lungs, as one of the principal. The extracts 
would be too lengthy, and take up too much space, to insert 
