696 IRISH CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The post-mortem examination invariably shows derangement of 
the stomach, generally distension is present to a great extent, and 
not unfrequently there is a similar condition found in the other of 
the abdominal viscera; while hypertrophy of the heart and disease 
of its valves have been often seen. There is also found an atrophied 
A. 
state of the muscles of the larynx, which may account for the fact 
that some broken-winded horses are difficult or almost impossible 
to be made cough by pressing the throat. 
It is unnecessary for me to enter into the pathology of emphysema, 
as so much has been already written on it, and I am convinced that 
it is not a post mortem in broken wind. Some of the most careful 
observers—Professor Dick and Mr. Barlow amongst them—have 
failed to find any difference from the healthy lung, excepting in 
being a little paler and lighter, but it is not unusual to find them 
hepatized or congested, or even tuberculous. 
The remote causes (says Mr. Blaine) of broken wind are here¬ 
ditary or constitutional liability, as well as the remaining sufficiently 
long under the action of causes capable of exerting morbid changes 
in the respiratory organs themselves. A certain form of body is 
unquestionably favorable to its production, and it is from this cir¬ 
cumstance that it proves hereditary. The narrow, confined chest, 
and the pendent belly which marks low-bred horses, and gross 
feeding, all of which are observed to be particularly liable to the 
disease, are predisponents by confining the ordinate action of the 
lungs, and affording no reserve for the inordinate. It must be this 
defect which renders it more common in mares than in horses, as 
well as the necessity for a more capacious abdominal viscera. 
The sudden appearance of true broken wind after a hard gallop, 
or after drinking water, I have never met with myself, although so 
much has been written that it has that effect, and I should be glad 
to hear if any member here has observed actually such a conse¬ 
quence. It may produce permanent congestion, or even haemoptysis, 
causing difficulty in breathing, but I have some doubts of its effects 
further. 
It is needless for me in this essay to go over the symptoms of 
broken wind, so well are they known to each. Amongst the earliest 
indications we have the cough, which at first may be little changed, 
but gradually loses that peculiar sound tone, and assumes a short 
and husky one. As the disease advances it becomes more of a bark, 
less frequent, perhaps single. The increased action of the fianks is 
an invariable accompaniment, and is no doubt the true sign ; at 
first only increased or deepened, but soon assuming the double-beat, 
dilation of the alae of the nostrils, and on exertion dyspnoea, &c. &c. 
Auscultation gives us little further information. At the sides there 
is a low moaning sound, with increased breathing, wdiile at the 
entrance of the chest, over the trachea, w^e generally hear a distinct 
rushing or gurgling sound. In some cases which I examined there 
was scarcely any respiratory murmur noticeable in the lower part of 
the lung which would denote symptoms of consolidation, which may 
in occasional instances take place. The dependent abdomen, with 
