THE DISEASES OF JOINTS. 29 



supervene on inflammation; but, while the first four of these phe- 

 nomena are observable more particularly upon the loose or capsular 

 portion, the last — ulceration — is almost peculiar to the reflected or 

 cartilaginous portion of the membrane. The best examples we 

 have of increased secretion of synovia are furnished by the dis- 

 ease known under the vulgar and incorrect appellation of ivind- 

 gall ; which is, in fact, a distention of a bursa mucosa, with (not 

 ivind, but) sijnovia. The capped hock, puffy and fluctuating to 

 the feel and tap of the finger, is another illustration of synovia 

 collected in undue quantity, and one in which the augmented se- 

 cretion is commonly the sequel of inflammation or increased vas- 

 cular action, originating in some contusion from a kick or blow of 

 some kind. Likewise, the soft undulating tumour so frequently 

 seen growing from the point of the elbow — and which might be 

 called a capped elbow — from the enormous size which it now and 

 then acquires, aflbrds an excellent specimen of synovial tumefac- 

 tion. Indeed, there is hardly a bursal cavity in the body but 

 what has been known, on one occasion or another, to shew dis- 

 ease of this kind; and we find the same redundance of joint-oil 

 pouring out of open joints, and now and then may detect collec- 

 tions in closed joints. Inflammation excited in ajoint from an ordi- 

 nary sprain, no doubt, commonly gives rise to some augmentation 

 of its secretion, though it is not always detectible by us, perhaps 

 seldomer, from its not being so much sought aft^r as other effects 

 of the sprain: that, however, which we Q.?i\\ fidness of the joint, 

 though it arises, in part, from infiltration exterior to the cavity, is 

 also commonly ascribable, in some measure, to this inward cause. 



The best illustration we have, however, in hippiatric practice, of 

 such accunmlated synovial secretion, occurs in the disease to which 

 the joints are occasionally subject from consiitidional disease or de- 

 rangement; that which we would call the rheumatic inflammation 

 of the joints of horses. All veterinarians are now in the habit of 

 noting, when they occur, cases of metastasis of inflammation from 

 the thoracic viscera into the joints and sheaths of the tendons, and 

 well know what swelling, from collected synovia, and what heat 

 and tenderness and excessive lameness, such inflammation occa- 

 sions. So long ago as the year 1829 I drew attention to this sub- 



