THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXV, 
No. 291. 
MARCH 1852. 
Third Series, 
No. 51. 
THOUGHTS ON BROKEN WIND. 
By John W. Gloag, M.R.C.V.S., 11th Hussars. 
[Continued from page 66.] 
TREATMENT.— What is to be said under this head? I 
have never heard of a true case of broken wind (by which I 
mean one wherein all the symptoms had become fully developed, 
and had existed for any length of time) to recover; but I have 
known and heard of many cases of disease bearing the character 
of broken wind, which came on very suddenly during inflam¬ 
matory attacks of the chest, from that or other causes, to recover 
perfectly; shewing that these spurious attacks are purely 
symptomatic, and that genuine broken wind is a disease of slow 
growth. From all that has preceded, we may perceive that this 
disease ends in serious morbid structural changes. How is 
medicine to repair or to renew altered structure ? It is true, 
surprising changes for better and worse often take place in this 
complaint, which seem to be sometimes owing to sudden vicis¬ 
situdes of temperature, at others to peculiar conditions of atmo¬ 
sphere, such as its lightness or density, or states of electricity. 
I consider that, in the peculiar state of the lungs of a broken- 
winded horse, the great labour of the abdominal muscles is abso¬ 
lutely necessary to bring about the proper arterialization of the 
blood; hence, under certain states of atmosphere, when there is less 
oxygen in a given space, or from, perhaps, some other peculiar 
changes in its electrical condition which we cannot fathom, the 
difficulty of effecting the oxygenizing of the blood is greatly 
increased. If we urge a badly broken-winded horse into exertion, 
he will drop: he is thrown into a state of asphyxia, in which, if 
he should die, his blood will be found to be quite black. Indeed, 
in bad cases, as the disease advances to a fatal termination, we 
find the lining membrane of the nose and mouth turning to a 
purple colour, evincing the condition his system is in. Accord- 
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