292 WINDGALLS OF THE FETLOCK. 



frequently than in the fore, and likewise, in general, run to greater 

 size in the former, and are more inclined to be troublesome, and so 

 to call, whenever they do call, for remedial measures. They are 

 likewise oftener seen in clean-limbed horses, and such as shew 

 breeding, than in those of an opposite character. In all this we 

 trace the consequences of exertion. We know how much more the 

 hind limbs have to do in progression than the fore ones ; and we 

 also know how much quicker and suddener, and more trying and 

 straining, are the movements of blood horses — of racers and hunters 

 and well-bred harness horses — than those of half or coarse bred 

 or cart horses. 



The Seat of the Fetlock Windgall is so well known that 

 any description of it might appear not supererogatory merely, but 

 ridiculous. And yet it may not have occurred to the superficial 

 observer that the nature of windgall, which to him appears like one 

 general or uniform swelling, is in reality double. Sometimes, it is 

 true, there is but one place in which any tumour is found, and 

 that is immediately above and behind the fetlock-joint, either on 

 one side or, as is usual, on both. The double tumefaction is pro- 

 duced by the presence of a bursal tumour higher and still more 

 backward, and commonly of less volume, than the former. And 

 this, as well as the lower one, is apt to be more prominent upon 

 the outer side of the leg than upon the inner ; so much indeed, in 

 some cases, that it actually curls round the back of the leg. The 

 tumours have the ordinary puffy feel, and look, in shape and bulk at 

 least, like pigeons' or birds' eggs inserted underneath the skin. Dis- 

 section unfolds to us that the superior windgall is lodged in the inter- 

 val between the perforatus and perforans tendons, about two inches 

 above the sesamoid bones : indeed, the sac of the windgall, from 

 surrounding attachments to its borders, appears as though it 

 gave passage to the perforans tendon through its cavity ; though 

 this appearance, in point of fact, is owing to the membrane of the 

 bursa being reflected upon the surface of the tendon. The inferior 

 and anterior windgall is situated half an inch lower down. It is 

 seated in front of the perforans tendon, between it and the sus- 

 pensory ligament, occupying the interval there existing between 

 the bifurcations of the ligament just named. The connexion of 



