134 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
bursa mucosa. In all cases in which the fetlock joints are what 
we denominate “round,” i. e., are evidently full and tumefied in 
front , as well as in other parts, the bursa underneath the extensor 
tendon is the seat of the windgall, which, in this instance, is com¬ 
plicated with synovial dropsy or general dilatation of the capsule 
of the fetlock joint; and this affection, though we are not in the 
habit of regarding it as “ windgall,” is, as we all know, anything 
but uncommon. What, however, more significantly, perhaps 
more appropriately, is called “ windgall in front of the fetlock,” 
consists in a normal distention with synovial fluid of the superficial 
or subcutaneous bursa thereabouts, producing puffy elastic tumours, 
palpably visible to the common observer, and bearing all the signs 
and characters of ordinary windgall. Windgalls of this latter de¬ 
scription are but rarely met with: we may, in our time, have seen 
half-a-dozen instances; certainly not more. 
We remember a grey carriage horse being brought to us in 
June 1848, exhibiting windgalls in front of the fetlocks of both 
fore legs, the tumours not being directly upon, but rather over the 
joints. They were oblong rather than globular in shape, and were 
about the magnitude of sections of hens’ eggs. The tumour upon 
the off leg had been there for two years; that upon the near, but 
one. Vesicatories, and iodine and mercurial ointments, had been 
made use of: the latter having been found to answer best, though 
neither appeared to have done much good. We were asked our opi¬ 
nion about the case. Our answer was, “ Two courses of treatment 
appeared open to trial: the one was puncturation; the other 
firing .” The tumour being moveable underneath the skin, and 
having no traceable connexion with the joint, seemed a fair sub¬ 
ject for a small trocar. On the other hand, should danger be ap¬ 
prehended from such an operation, certainly light firing could do 
no possible harm, and seemed to promise to have the effect of 
causing absorption. The horse shewed no lameness whatever. 
Another instance of the disease is a troop horse now serving in 
the First Life Guards. H, No. 4, black mare, has a windgall in 
front of the off fore fetlock, directly above the joint, which is oblong 
in form, and measures from end to end four inches in length, and 
stretches in an oblique direction upwards across the fore part of 
the cannon to the inner side of the leg. We cannot say how long 
the tumour has existed, having but recently discovered it. It is 
certainly some disfigurement or “blemish” to the mare; but, be¬ 
yond that, is not of the slightest consequence. 
Windgall of the Heel. 
Of all, this seems to be the rarest form of windgall. Indeed, it 
is one which, so far as our reading has gone, remains up to this 
