FRACTURE OF THE TIBIA. 973 



acts as rising, lying down, or passing urine or faeces. It is seldom 

 postponed more than a week or ten days from the date of original 

 injury, though cases exist where fracture has not occurred until 

 four or five weeks afterwards. In a case of Moller's, fracture was 

 delayed until a month after the injury, and in an army horse 127 

 days passed after the primary accident before the parts became 

 separated. In such cases the fracture is probably subfascial, a view 

 supported by the commonly-observed fact that the fragments show 

 no callus formation. Or, again, the primary injury may produce 

 local Assuring or partial fracture which weakens the tibia, but only 

 gives rise to complete fracture under severe strains, like those occurring 

 when rising, lying down, &c. Abrasion of the edges of fragments 

 either results after fracture is complete or is due to subperiosteal 

 fracture, in which slight movement of the fractured portions is possible. 

 The absence of abrasion is not, however, evidence that limited fracture 

 may not have existed for some considerable time, a fact of much 

 forensic importance. A kick on the inner surface of the tibia, such 

 as would be given by a horse standing alongside, may at once produce 

 complete fracture, which is then generally complicated. The bone 

 is occasionally broken by the animal slipping, falling, being struck 

 with the carriage-pole during collisions, or by its struggling violently 

 in hobbles, as, for example, during castration, though, in the latter 

 case, the femur or vertebral column is more often fractured. 



With the exception of the horse, the commonest sufferers from 

 fracture of the tibia are dogs, in which the accident is due to being 

 kicked, run over, &c. Oxen and other animals are much less 

 frequently affected ; nevertheless, cases are seen in them, and the 

 practitioner is even occasionally called on to treat parrots and 

 canaries. Fenimore describes a case of fracture of the tibia in a 

 foetus ; the fracture had actually been produced by a kick received 

 by the mother (a cow) whilst pregnant, and when the calf was born 

 the fracture was united. 



The symptoms vary according to the degree of the fracture. 

 Complete fracture renders it impossible to place weight on the limb, 

 the unusual mobility of which can be detected even from a distance ; 

 the foot, when lifted, remains dangling, and in the horse the condition 

 shows some resemblance to rupture of the flexor metatarsi muscle. 

 Fracture of the tibia, however, is at once differentiated by the 

 impossibility of placing weight on the limb. 



In complete fracture, crepitation can always be detected. Not 

 infrequently the exact point of fracture is discoverable, especially 

 if low in the leg. Perforation of the skin by splinters of bone removes 



