330 COMPENDIUM OF THE VETERINARY ART. 



prevent an undue ace amulation of this fluid*. 

 The ends of the bones, thus covered with a 

 smooth yielding surface so slippery as to 

 iuove upon each other freely without suffer- 

 ing from friction, are then firmly tied 

 together by a strong inelastic substance 

 termed ligament, which completely surrounds 

 the heads of the bones, as far at least as they 

 are covered with the smooth cartilaoe. This 

 ligament, termed by anatomists capsular 

 ligament, is not so tight as to prevent ex- 

 tensive motion of the bones, but sufficiently 

 so to hold them firmly in their proper si- 

 tuation. The joint is thus completely shut 

 up, forming a kind of sac, or what is termed 

 a circumscribed cavity-, and the joint oil which 

 is formed is confined to it's proper situation. 

 When a joint is wounded, or, in other words, 

 when the capsular ligament is wounded, the 

 joint oi], which ia a transparent fluid of a 



* When a jo'mt becomes dropsical, as in bog spav'irt, it is eilher 

 from a loss of power in the absorbent vessels, or an increased action 

 of the vessels which form the joint oil : ^>erhaps both these causes 

 may concur in producing the disease, the njore remote- Cimie of 

 which is generally hard work, that i?;, too great or too ioiig con- 

 thmed motion of the joint. The disease terined windgalis majr 

 ke explained in the same wa^-. (See JVind^uUi, Aprciidi*.) 



