LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
661 
localities as are furnished with bursse mucosae or synovial sheaths: 
these however in the limbs, in the vicinity of the various joints in 
particular, are so numerous, that divers are the situations in which 
windgalls present themselves. In some sites, however, they are 
so frequent as to be, in horses in work, oftener present than absent; 
while in others their presence is so rare, that but few or no ex- 
amples may happen to occur to a practitioner in the course even of 
his lifetime. The ordinary seat of windgall, everybody, in or out 
of the profession, knows is the fetlock joint : in fact, so common is 
this site, that, when “ windgall” is spoken of, this is the description 
at once taken for granted to be referred to. The next most 
frequent site — perhaps, in young horses, a more usual one — for 
windgall is the hock-joint. Bog-spavin , thorough-pin , and 
capped hock, are no more than so many windgalls occupying 
different localities about the hock, and differing in their nature 
and importance according to their several respective connexions. 
Next in priority comes the elbow ; then the knee. Last of all, the 
front of the fetlock, and in the heel. 
SPECIES. — One windgall differs from another in character and 
consequences, not only as regards the part or tissue each respectively 
occupies, but in the relations which from its particular locality each 
respectively has with surrounding parts and tissues. Some 
windgalls, from their proximity to joints, either from their first 
formation communicate with the cavities of such joints, or in the 
course of time do so afterwards; others there are which maintain 
themselves free from all such communication, notwithstanding thev 
are in the vicinity of articulations. Others, again, there are which 
from their situation are altogether independent of the joints. 
Another marked distinction between windgalls is self-evident in 
the circumstance of some being accompanied with lameness, while 
others there are — and these latter, as we have already intimated, 
constitute a vast majority — which are hardly ever known to be 
productive of lameness, at least so long as they continue to remain 
in that statu quo they ordinarily present themselves. 
The Treatment of Windgalls, unless lameness arise from 
their presence, is a matter little heeded by professional persons; 
nor is it one sought after much by persons out of the profession, 
unless at such times as horses are growing " stale upon their legs,” 
and then the presence of windgall is frequently made a pretext or 
necessity for blistering or firing. The windgalls, being the only 
anormalities discoverable by such persons, are naturally enough 
regarded as the causes of the “ staleness,” and as naturally are 
desired to be removed. It has been shewn, however, both as the 
result of experience and pathological investigation, that windgalls, 
of a kind that do not produce lameness, or inconvenience by their 
magnitude, or offend the sight by their situation or their size, in 
