FRACTURES. 175 



being sufficient to break a bone. Muscular contraction, as 

 exemplified in the struggles of ahorse when cast and secured 

 for the purpose of undergoing an operation, is a not at all 

 uncommon cause of fracture ; rearing up and falling back- 

 ward is a common cause of fracture of the occipital ridge. 

 The fracture is, however, not always confined to the ridge, 

 but may extend to the basilar process, in which case death 

 occurs very quickly. External violence also causes fractures, 

 as kicks, blows, etc. Split pasterns are met with occasion- 

 ally ; such a fracture would be described as * longitudinal 

 fracture.' 



Symptoms. — As a rule the general symptoms of fracture are 

 plain, but sometimes excessive swelling occurs, when it 

 becomes a matter of difficulty to state positively whether a 

 fracture has taken place, especially is this the case with bones 

 deeply covered by muscular tissue. Sometimes the fractured 

 ends of the bone, if in a limb, may pass each other ; in such 

 a case the fracture can be felt with the fingers, as well as 

 detected by the eye, and is easily diagnosed. On manipu- 

 lating the parts when fracture is present, the broken ends 

 of the bone come into contact, and passing over each other 

 give rise to a grating sound known as ' crepitus' or ' crepita- 

 tion j' in some cases this symptom is very plain, but in a 

 part clothed deeply by muscular tissue a fracture may 

 exist and crepitus not be discoverable, especially if much 

 swelling has occurred ; in fracture without displacement it 

 is almost or quite impossible to discover the presence or 

 exact location of the fracture, although the practitioner may 

 feel very positive of its existence. 



Treatment. — There is good reason to believe that a frac- 

 tured bone in the low^er animals can be repaired in much 

 less time than would be occupied in the union of a similar 

 fracture occurring in man; butthetreatment of fracturein the 

 lower animals is rendered a matter of great difficulty on 



