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Sed.vn. BuRSiE Mucosae of the Human BoHy. 31 
0 ^ thigh-bone, by which a communication was opened between the cavity of a 
burfa and that of the ligament of a joint ; yet no complaint of pain or ftiffnefs 
of the joint had been made by the perfon during life (i)i This could not well 
have happened if the liquor of the burfse had been effentially different from 
that of the joints. 
I 
1 1. I HAVE repeatedly obferved an effufion of fluid into the cavities of the 
joints and of the burfe from the fame caufes, or in eonfequence of the fame 
f « 
difeafes. 
Thus, in rheumatic and gouty conftitutions, the joints are often fwelled; 
but when we attend narrowly to the feat of fuch fwellings, we fliall generally 
difcover an effufion into the burfse as well as into the cavities of the joints. 
In like manner, in feveral fcrophulous cafes, I have obferved the burfe, 
efpecially at the wrifts or ankles, flretched with a vifcid fluid. 
1)ropsy of the joint of the knee, I have remarked, is a more common and a 
more curable diforder than I believe it is commonly fuppofed to be. I have 
kept an account of fifteen patients under this complaint, of whom eleven were 
completely cured by the ufe of l(iechesi blifters, and folution of fal plumbi in 
vinegar, and purgatives. In two more of the number, an effufion into the joint 
has continued for feveral years. In the two remaining, the effufion was com- 
plicated with white fwelling, and terminated in death. 
In feveral cafes of fwelling of the knee with fluauation, I have found that 
the fluid was lodged in the burfa behin'd the tendon of the extenfors of the 
leg 5 and ! have obferved, that fuch tumors are apt, with time, to teiminate in 
an imperfed fuppuration, where fome purulent matter is mixed with a vifcid 
clear liquor. 
, “L'a . ' . When 
i S) 
(f) See Tab. VII. fig. 1. a- 3. . 
