96 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



Before I advert to enlargement of the sinews, I 

 will allude to a complaint called wind-galls, often 

 found just above the fetlock : they rather disfigure 

 than lame a horse, though when they attain a 

 large size, they are injurious ; they are occasioned 

 by an excessive secretion of the synovial matter 

 supplied for lubricating the joint. They are pre- 

 cisely the same in character as the swelling of the 

 bursa mucosa below the knee-pan in the human 

 subject ; a soft, elastic enlargement of the gland, 

 to which house-maids and char-women, accustomed 

 to clean floors while kneeling, are particularly 

 liable. The purchaser will at once discover them, 

 not only by the eye, but by the peculiar pulpy 

 feel that is found on pressure. Where he finds 

 this defect, he may consider the horse unfit for 

 severe work, for he has already done too much, 

 but not necessarily unsound. I have lately pur- 

 chased a mare which is subject to this complaint ; 

 her hind legs are remarkably "pufi*ed." I have 

 had her in regular work for about six months, 

 and I find that she is scarcely able to carry weight 

 in the saddle, though she has no other symptom of 

 disease. She goes very safely, however, in harness, 



