290 WINDGALLS OF THE FETLOCK. 



According to the vulgar acceptation of the term " windgallt 

 as we have before had occasion to remark, the tumours we now 

 are about to describe are those indicated, although in a patho- 

 logical point of view others of a similar nature appear quite as 

 much entitled to the appellation. In speaking of " windgalls," it 

 would therefore render our meaning more definite would we qua- 

 lify the generic name by such additions as windgalls of, or in, or 

 about the fetlock, pastern, knee, &c. 



The Windgall of the Fetlock constitutes one of the most 

 ordinary forms in which we meet with the disease ; and the every- 

 day aspect of it, combined with the innocuousness of it in a general 

 way, furnishes us with the reason of its being a disease concern- 

 ing which we are less consulted than about almost any other. 

 Bog spavins and thorough-pins create occasional uneasiness in the 

 minds of possessors of horses, while windgalls of the fetlocks are, 

 as it were, altogether overlooked ; or rather, perhaps, are regarded 

 as nothing beyond what happens in " the regular course of nature." 

 The only occasions on which windgalls seem to trouble the minds 

 of horse-folk are, as we formerly observed, when failure in the 

 fore limbs comes to be noticed — " stiffness," " staleness," or " grog- 

 giness," and then windgalls, if present — which they pretty invaria- 

 bly are — are apt to come in for a great deal more than their share 

 of the causation of the recorded failure. 



Lameness rarely results from Windgalls, however; 

 neither are they, under ordinary circumstances, to be regarded as 

 sources even of weakness or inconvenience : in fine, common wind- 

 galls no way injure the limb nor detract from the sterling value of 

 the animal. They most assuredly are, in horses of a certain age, 

 or that have performed any great deal of labour, to be viewed as 

 "signs of work :" at the same time, in the usual condition of such 

 swellings, the limbs appear to act as freely and as firmly with as 

 without them, and horses that have them in all their legs continue 

 working for years without manifesting any complaint or indication 

 of failure whatsoever. 



Connected, in one instance, as windgalls are with joints, in another 

 with tendons, in another again with ligaments, use and sprain and 

 contortion of such parts must, of course, more or less affect them : 



