•WIND-GALLS. 375 



be considered as sound. He is only patched up for a Avliile, and will pro- 

 bably fail at tlie close of the first day's hard work. 



WIND-GALLS. 



In the neighbourhood of the fetlock there are occasionallly found con- 

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

 are denominated wind-galls. Between the tendons and other parts, 

 and wherever the tendons are exposed to pressure or friction, and parti- 

 cularly about their extremities, 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 often 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 per- 

 fectly free from them. When they first appear, and until the inflamma- 

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

 otherwise, excejjt when they attain a great size, they do not interfei-e with 

 the action of the animal, or cause any considerable unsoundness. The 

 farriers used to suppose that they contained wind — hence their name, 

 wind-galls ; and hence the practice of opening them, by which dreadful 

 inflammation was often produced, and many a valuable horse destroyed. 

 It is not uncommon for wind-galls entirely to disappear in aged horses. 



The treatment for wind-galls cannot begin too soon. When they appear 

 bandage the Hmb, from the coronet to the knee, daily with wet bandages. 

 The wet bandage must be well wrung out of very cold water, and changed 

 every two, three, or four hours. 



Upon every change of bandage the limb must be well hand-rubbed 

 Avith wet hands for several minutes. The vndth of the bandage should 

 not exceed three and a half inches. The wind-gall will often dmiinish or 

 disappear by this treatment, but "will too frequently return when the horse 

 is again hardly worked. A blister is a more effectual, but too often tem- 

 porary remedy : wind-galls will retiirn Avith the renewal of work. Firing 

 is still more certain, if the tumours are sufficiently large and annoying to 

 justify our having recourse to measures so severe ; for it will not only 

 effect the immediate absorption of the fluid, and the reduction of the 

 swelling, but, by contracting the skin, will act as a permanent bandage, 

 and therefore prevent the reappearance of the tumour. The iodine and 

 mercurial ointments have occasionally been used with advantage, in the 

 proportion of three parts of the former to two of the latter. 



LESIONS OP THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT. 



At the back of the shank just below the knee, and in the space between 

 the two aphnt-bones, behind the pei'foratus and perforans tendon, is found 

 an important ligament, admirably adapted to obviate concussion. It 

 originates in the head of the shank-bone, and also in the heads of the 

 splint-bones ; then, descending do^wn the leg, it fills the groove between the 

 splint-bones, but is not attached to either of them. A httle lower down 

 it expands on either side, and, approaching the pasterns, bifurcates, and 

 the branches are inserted into two small bones foiind at the back of the 

 upper pastern, one on each side, called the sesamo id-hones. The internal 

 branch of this hgament is somewhat longer than the outer, more especially 

 in limbs of a pecuhar formation, such, for instance, as those in which the 

 toes are everted or turned out. (See page 360.) The bones form 

 a kiud of joint both with the lower head of the shank-bone and the upper 



