344 WIND-GALLS. 



and subject to renewed injury, not only from unusual, but even ordinary exer- 

 tion. If a blister is resorted to, time should be given for it to produce its 

 gradual and full effect, and the horse should be afterwards turned out for one 

 or two months. We must here be permitted to repeat that a blister should 

 never be used while any heat or tenderness remains about the part, otherwise 

 the slightest injury may be, and often is, converted into incurable lameness. 



Very severe sprains, or, much oftener, sprains badly treated, may require the 

 application of the cautery. If from long-continued inflammation the structure 

 of the part is materially altered if the swelling is becoming callous, or the skin 

 is thickened and prevents the free motion of the limb, no stimulus short of the 

 heated iron will be sufficient to rouse the absorbents to remove the injurious 

 deposit. The principal use of firing is to rouse the absorbents to such increased 

 action that they shall take up and remove the diseased thickness of the skin, 

 and likewise the unnatural deposit in the cellular substance beneath. The 

 firing should be applied in straight lines, because the skin, contracting by the 

 application of the cautery, and gradually regaining its elastic nature, will thus 

 form the best bandage over the weakened part. It should likewise be as deep 

 as it can be applied without penetrating the skin. Here, even more particularly 

 than in the blister, time should be given for the full action of the firing. This 

 removal of diseased matter is a work of slow progress. Many weeks pass away 

 before it is perfectly accomplished ; and, after firing, the horse should have at 

 least a six months', and it would be better if he could be given a twelve months* 

 run at grass. When the animal has been set to work in a few weeks, and the 

 enlargement remains, or lameness returns, the fault is to be attributed to the 

 impatience of the owner, and not to the want of power in the operation or skill 

 in the operator. 



Farriers are apt to blister immediately after firing. A blister may be useful 

 six weeks or two months after firing, if lameness remains ; but can never be 

 wanted immediately after the severe operation of the cautery. If the iron has 

 been skilfully applied, subsequent blistering inflicts on the animal, already suf- 

 ficiently tortured, much unnecessary and useless pain, and should never be 

 resorted to by him who possesses the slightest feeling of humanity. 



In examining a horse for purchase, the closest attention should be paid to the 

 appearance of these flexor tendons. If there is any thickness of cellular sub- 

 stance around them, that horse has been sprained violently, or the sprain has 

 not been properly treated. This thickening will probably fetter the motion of 

 the tendon, and dispose the part to the recurrence of inflammation and lame- 

 ness. Such a horse, although at the time perfectly free from lameness, should be 

 regarded with suspicion, and cannot fairly be considered as sound. He is only 

 patched up for a while, and will probably fail at the close of the first day's hard 

 work. 



WIND-GALLS. 



In the neighbourhood of the fetlock there are occasionally found considerable 

 enlargements, oftener on the hind-leg than the fore-one, which are denominated 

 wind-galls (e, p. 351). Between the tendons and other parts, and wherever the 

 tendons are exposed to pressure or friction, and particularly about their ex- 

 tremities, little bags or sacs are placed, containing and suffering to ooze slowly 

 from them a mucous fluid to lubricate the parts. From undue pressure, and 

 that most frequently caused by violent action and straining of the tendons, or, 

 ftften, from some predisposition about the horse, these little sacs are injured. 

 They take on inflammation, and sometimes become large and indurated. There 

 are few horses perfectly free from them. When they first appear, and until the 

 inflammation subsides, they may be accompanied by some degree of lameness ; 



