tion of an animal observe the depth,
frequency, quickness, facility, and the nature of the respiratory
movements. They may be quick or slow, frequent or infrequent, deep or
imperfect, labored, unequal, irregular, etc., each of which indications has
its significance to the experienced veterinarian.

Sleep, rumination, pregnancy in cows, etc., modify the respiratory
movements even in health. Respiration consists of two acts--inspiration and
expiration. The function of respiration is to take in oxygen from the
atmospheric air, which is essential for the maintenance of life, and to
exhale the deleterious gas known as "carbon dioxid."

The frequency of the respiratory movements is determined by observing the
motions of the nostrils or of the flanks. The normal rate of respiration
for a healthy animal of the bovine species is from 15 to 18 times a minute.
The extent of the respiratory system renders it liable to become affected
by contiguity to many parts and its nervous connections are very important.

Rapid, irregular, or difficult breathing is known as dyspnea, and in all
such cases the animal has difficulty in obtaining as much oxygen as it
requires. Among the conditions that give rise to dyspnea may be mentioned
restricted area of active lung tissue, owing to the filling of portions of
the lungs with inflammatory exudate, as in pneumonia; painful movements of
the chest, as in rheumatism or pleurisy; fluid in the chest cavity, as in
hydrothorax; adhesions between the lungs and chest walls; compression of
the lungs or loss of elasticity; excess of carbon dioxid in the blood;
weakness of the respiratory passages; tumors of the nose and paralysis of
the throat; swellings of the throat; foreign bodies and constriction of the
air passages leading to the lungs; fevers, etc.

As already stated, it is only the careful and constant examination of
animals in health that will enable one properly to appreciate abnormal
conditions. One must become familiar with the frequency and character of
the pulse and of the respirations and know the temperature of the animal in
health, before changes in abnormal conditions can be properly appreciated.

_Temperature._--The temperature should be taken in all cases of sickness.
Experienced practitioners can approximate the patient's temperature with
remarkable accuracy, but I strongly recommend the use of the
self-registering clinical thermometer, which is a most valuable instrument
in diagnosing