WINDGALL IN FRONT OF THE FETLOCK. 307 



we denominate " round," i. e., are evidently full and tumefied in 

 front, as well as in other parts, the bursa underneath the extensor 



tendon is the seat of the windgall, which, in this instance, is com- 

 plicated with synovial dropsy or general dilatation of the capsule 

 of the fetlock joint; and this affection, though we are not in the 

 habit of regarding it as *' windgall," is, as we all know, anything 

 but uncommon. What, however, more significantly, perhaps 

 more appropriately, is called " windgall in front of the fetlock," 

 consists in a normal distention with synovial fluid of the superficial 

 or subcutaneous bursa thereabouts, producing pufly elastic tumours, 

 palpably visible to the common observer, and bearing all the signs 

 and characters of ordinary windgall. Windgalls of this latter de- 

 scription are but rarely met with : I may, in my time, have seen 

 half-a-dozen instances — certainly not more. 



I remember a grey carriage horse being brought to me in 

 June 1848, exhibiting windgalls in front of the fetlocks of both 

 fore legs, the tumours not being directly upon, but rather above the 

 joints. They were oblong rather than globular in shape, and were 

 about the magnitude of sections of hens' eggs. The tumour upon 

 the off leg had been there for two years ; that upon the near, but 

 one. Vesicatories, and iodine and mercurial ointments, had been 

 made use of: the latter having been found to answer best, though 

 neither appeared to have done much good. I was asked my opi- 

 nion about the case. My answer was, " Two courses of treatment 

 appeared open to trial : the one was puncturation ; the other 

 firing.'' The tumour being moveable underneath the skin, and 

 having no traceable connexion with the joint, seemed a fair sub- 

 ject for a small trocar. On the other hand, should danger be ap- 

 prehended from such an operation, certainly light firing could do 

 no possible harm, and seemed to promise to have the effect of 

 constriction, and so ultimately of causing absorption. The horse 

 shewed no lameness whatever. 



. Another instance of the disease is a troop horse now serving in 

 the First Life Guards. H, No. 4, black mare, has a windgall in 

 front of the off fore fetlock, directly above the joint, which is oblong 

 in form, and measures from end to end four inches in length, and 

 stretches in an oblique direction upwards across the fore part of 



