Remove all bed by day, and muzzle when littered down for the night. Place a lump of rock-salt at one end of the manger, and at the other put a block of chalk.
Such is the little science can propose for the alleviation of an incapacitating disorder. All other recommendations rather concern the owner than the stable. A horse thus afflicted should never be pushed hard or called upon for any extraordinary exertion. Fatigue, when severe, is apt to provoke alarming spasm; a spectacle which the author once witnessed, of an animal which had journeyed far, pulling a heavy load, is represented at the head of this article. The horse had only paused while the carter took his beer, and had received nothing but hay upon the road. It had traveled all night, and it was still in the chains when the writer beheld it on the afternoon of the succeeding day.
After death, the body which has suffered from the disease declares the ravage of the malady. The lungs are larger than usual, and always pallid; small bladders containing gas are upon their surface, and when taken from their cavity the organs do not collapse as do the healthy lungs, nor can the air by compression be entirely driven forth. The hand being forced upon the surface elicits crepitation, or provokes a crackling sound, induced by the vapor passing out of one cell into another; for broken wind causes the terminations of the bronchial tubes to give way or to freely communicate one with another. Now, it is within these air-cells that the blood absorbs the oxygen from the inhaled atmosphere, and purifies itself by yielding up carbonic acid. How much must the destruction of their integrity, therefore, affect the entire body! Impure blood cannot nourish a healthy life; and the reader, after the above explanation, will easily account for the ragged and dejected aspect of the horse with broken wind.
The diaphragm is also disintegrated; the fibers of its tendinous portion are separated. The stomach is distended and thin; the bowels are enlarged and blown out with gas; the muscle of the anus is flaccid; the visible mucous membranes are of an unhealthy tint; the lining of the windpipe and the bronchial tubes is greatly thickened; the muscles are soft and deficient in color; and, where fat should have been, is only found a gelatinous fluid.
HOW TO HEAR THE SOUND MADE WITHIN
THE HORSE'S WINDPIPE.
Having related the living and the morbid changes which characterize the malady, it remains now to inform the reader how so terrible a scourge may be avoided. The horse is so valuable a helpmate that it merits, for its own sake, man's greatest care. Never, for any reason, therefore, drive the animal from the shelter of the stable to the exposure of the field; never turn the steed which has thriven upon prepared food to the starvation of a "run at grass," or rankness of the "straw-yard." Never, for cheapness, buy damaged provender; never load a famishing stomach; be generous in all provision for those creatures which devote their lives to your service. Never, where such a thing is possible, permit the groom to ride or exercise the nag out of your sight. Be very attentive that the times of watering are rigidly observed. Never suffer an animal to quit the stable soon after it has drank or eaten. Be very attentive to all coughs; accustom yourself to the sound of the healthy horse's windpipe, that when the slightest change of noise indicates the smallest change of structure, you may be prepared to recognize and to meet the enemy before disease has had time to fix upon the membrane.
Having laid down the above rules, it may, to the ignorant, appear that every possible movement of the proprietor has been interfered with; that, in fact, the horse owner has been left no freedom of action. To the informed, however, it will seem that nothing more than every gentleman should observe has been proposed; and the horseman will smile when he learns that by such trivial matters can so heavy an affliction as broken wind be avoided.
MELANOSIS.
