PENETRATING WOUND OF THE ELBOW. 435 



The animal was killed. 



Autopsy (made immediately after death).— The muscles surrounding 

 the humerus were much bruised and infiltrated with blood ; the bone 



Fig. 53. 



itself had sustained a comminuted fracture, and was broken into seven 

 pieces. 



.Mr. A. Hodder's case, Veterinarian, 1898, p. 240. 



PENETRATING WOUND OF THE ELBOW. 



143. An eight-year-old gelding, entered hospital March 2gth, i8g8. 



While drawing a cart on the previous evening, the horse had fallen 

 from a height of twenty-two feet into a barge in the Seine. The left 

 shaft of the vehicle broke off obliquely, the sharp end penetrating 

 between the olecranon and thorax, passing through the subscapular 

 region, and emerging in front, near the point of the shoulder. It was 

 at once removed. 



Condition on Entry. — Just inside the point of the left shoulder was a 

 large irregular wound about twelve inches long, extending obliquely 

 downwards and inwards, the lower part only affecting the skin and 

 connective tissue, the upper part traversing the fibres of the mastoido- 

 humeralis muscle ; the caput muscles were hardly affected. At the 

 lower angle of this first wound was a deep cul-de-sac filled with coagu- 

 lated blood. The wound traversed the connective tissue in the axillary 

 space, the superficial pectoral muscle (in the direction of its fibres) and 

 ended over the upper part of the inner surface of the fore-arm. At this 

 point was a straight wound, oblique like the first, about eight inches in 

 length and distant about two inches from the fold of skin under the 

 elbow, to which it was parallel ; the lips of this wound were in contact 

 when weight was placed on the limb, but gaped when the leg was rested. 

 No important vessels were injured. 



The upper parts of the limb, from the knee to the withers, showed 

 a diffuse, insensitive, crepitating swelling, due to subcutaneous emphy- 

 sema. 



Movement was slightly impeded, but weight was readily placed on 

 the limb. 



