A complete system of farriery, and veterinary medicine : containi[n]g a compendium of the veterinary art, or an accurate description of the diseases of horses, and their mode of treatment; the anatomy and physiology of the foot, and the principles and practice of shoeing. With observations on stable management, feeding, exercise, and condition / by James White ... newly arranged by the publishers, in which are introduced the late and important treatises upon the glanders, farcy, staggers, inflammation of the lungs and bowels, the prevention and treatment of lameness, and precautions to be observed in purchasing horses. By the same author. Illustrated by eighteen elegant plates.
- White, James, -1825
- Date:
- 1832
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A complete system of farriery, and veterinary medicine : containi[n]g a compendium of the veterinary art, or an accurate description of the diseases of horses, and their mode of treatment; the anatomy and physiology of the foot, and the principles and practice of shoeing. With observations on stable management, feeding, exercise, and condition / by James White ... newly arranged by the publishers, in which are introduced the late and important treatises upon the glanders, farcy, staggers, inflammation of the lungs and bowels, the prevention and treatment of lameness, and precautions to be observed in purchasing horses. By the same author. Illustrated by eighteen elegant plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
![[42 ] weight specifically increased, at the same time that their capacity for air is diminished. During life the lungs entirely fill the cav- ity of the chest, so as to leave no space between their outward surface and the inward surface of the ribs. (See structure of the lungs.) Thus they dilate and contract, following by their own elasticity the action of the ribs and diaphragm. If the chest be punctured in the dead subject, the air rushes in, and the lungs collapse: but if the horse were broken winded, the lungs do not collapse. This state of the lungs sufficiently accounts for the difficulty of respiration; for as their faculty of dilation is de- stroyed, the ribs cannot expand without forming a vacuum in the chest, which the pressure of the external air prevents, which may be readily perceived in the case of broken wind; for then the intercostal muscles are so strongly retracted, as to form a deep furrow between every rib, as well as a depression in the flanks. On this account the air is received into the lungs with great difficulty; but its expulsion is not eo difficult, as the return of the ribs and diaphragm naturally force it outby their pressure. Thus in broken-winded horses inspiration is very slow, but ex- piration is sudden and rapid, as may be seen by the flanks re- turning with a jerk. It appears to me that the observations of Mr. Lawrence on this subject are not correct. Thelungs of broken winded horses that I have examined have generally been unusually large, with numerous air bladders on the surface. This must have arisen from a rupture of some of the air cells; for in this case some part of the air which is inspired will necessarily get into theceZ- lularmembrane of the lungs, and diffuse itself until it arrives at the surface, when it will raise the pleura so as to form the air- bladders we observe. This is the reason that the lungs of bro- ken-winded horses do not collapse when the chest is punctured; and this will serve to explain the peculiar motion of the flanks in broken-winded horses, which does not consist, as Mr. Lawrence asserts; in a quick expiration and a very slow inspiration, but quite the reverse; air is received into the lungs very readily, which is manifested by a sudden falling of the flanks, but it is expelled slowly, and with great difficulty, as may be perceived by the long continued exertion of the abdominal muscles* * A short time since, a horse completely broken-winded, was given to rn<? far the purpose of making experiments relative to the glanders, a disease is fur many years occupied my attention. On destroying the animal, and examining the lungs with great care, very little disease could be observ- ed. So far from their being thickened, and in the state Mr. Lawrence des- cribes, they were specifically lighter than natural; and though no air-blad- ders were perceived on the surface, there was evidently a great deal of air disced in the ovular membrane of the lungs, which must have been occa-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21163728_0046.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
