598 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
gain admission into it : the presence of air being found, the same 
as in joints, to derange its secretory function, and create inflam- 
mation. Hence it is that an opened bursa or tendinous sheath 
is regarded in much the same light as an opened joint, or at all 
events as a case calling for more medical skill and attention than 
any flesh or skin wound of the ordinary description. 
Bursal and Thecal Structures, being appendages to the 
locomotive apparatus, are regulated in their number and distribu- 
tion by the amount or extent of motion particular parts of the body 
possess. This accounts for the bursae and sheaths of tendons 
being met with exclusively in the limbs; and for those in the horse, 
in particular, as an animal forced into speed and labour under 
heavy burthens, coming so frequently under our notice in states of 
alteration or disease : the form such altered or morbid condition 
assumes being usually that of, what is called, 
WlNDGALL. 
Such an appellation naturally leads any body to suppose that 
“ wind” must constitute the swelling known as windgall; whereas, 
in point of fact, it is a bursa filled to distention (not with wind, 
but) with the same kind of synovial fluid of which it contains, for 
the due performance of its function, but a moderate proportion in a 
state of health. 
The Synovial (and Bursal) Membranes in disease exhi- 
bit phenomena analagous to those of their correlative tissues, the 
serous membranes. Under inflammation — or under even simply 
increased vascular action — we know how prone the serous surfaces 
are to emit serous fluid in unnatural quantity, and coagulated 
lymph along with it. The same propensity brought into action 
by similar causes is manifested by the synovial and bursal mem- 
branes. But the synovial is not equally disposed with the serous 
structure to run into the adhesive inflammation. Effusion of lymph 
does occur, but not so often, in joints and bursae. Rheumatic in- 
flammation of joints is one example of it ; the intense inflammation 
which now and then supervenes on severe broken knee, another. 
We have seen the entire surface of the synovial lining of a joint 
thickly coated with coagulable lymph. And this, we repeat, is 
the case not in joints alone, but, on occasions, in bursal and thecal 
cavities as well. The usual or ordinary form, however, and we 
may add the simplest form, under which disease of bursa presents 
itself is that of windgall. 
The Name of Windgall is a remnant of barbarous veterinary 
nosology. Derived from the words wind and gall, the' “ corrupt 
jelly” or black-looking matter which chronic windgalls are now 
