INTRODUCTION 
The disease known universally among Amer- 
ican veterinarians as fistula of the withers is 
described at much greater length in the follow- 
ing pages than has ever been done before in 
veterinary literature. Most of the authors of 
surgical subjects have dismissed this affliction 
with a few words, referring to it only incident- 
ally as an occasional complication of harness 
galls or other forms of trauma about the crest 
of the neck and withers, but. always without 
dignifying it as an entity worthy of special 
notice. Its frequent origin in the bursz on the 
thoracic spines of the region and its develop- 
ment independent of any apparent injury have 
only recently attracted attention. In fact, 
there are many who still entertain the opimion 
that it is but a complication of a contusion in- 
flicted by the collar, by rolling upon hard 
eround, by striking against a low stable beam, 
by rubbing against branches of trees while at 
the pasture, or by bites from other horses. 
Without ever having been able to attribute any 
given typical fistula of the withers to a given 
traumatism, the theory of traumatic origin 
has been indifferently accepted as ample expla- 
