, FEACTUKES. 221 



the imion has been accomplished by a ligamentous formation only, 

 that motion becomes practicable. 



The prognosis in a case of fracture in an animal is one of the 

 gravest vital impoi't to the patient, and therefore of serious pecu- 

 niary concern to his owner. The period has not long elapsed 

 when to have received such a hurt was quite equivalent to under- 

 going a sentence of death for the suffering animal, and perhaps 

 to-day a similar verdict is pronounced in many cases in which the 

 exercise of a little mechanical ingenuity, with a due amoimt of 

 careful nursing, might secure a contrary result and insure the re- 

 turn of the patient to his former condition of soundness and use- 

 fulness. Considered per se, a fracture in an animal is in fact no 

 less amenable to treatment than the same description of injury in 

 any other hving being. But the question of the propriety and 

 expediency of treatment is dependent upon certain specific jjoints 

 of collateral consideration. 



First. The nature of the lesion itself is a point of paramount 

 importance. A simple fracture occm-ring in a bone where the 

 ends can be firmly secured in coaptation, presents the most favor- 

 able conditions for successful treatment. If it be that of a long 

 bone it will be the less serious if situated at or near the middle of 

 its length than if it were in close proximity to a joint, from the 

 fact that perfect immobility can rarely, in the latter case, be 

 secured without incurring the risk of subsequent rigidity of the 

 joint. 



A simjjle is always less serious than a compound fracture. A 

 comminuted is always more dangerous than a simple, and a trans- 

 verse break is easier to treat than one which is oblique. The 

 most serious are those which are situated on parts of the body in 

 which it is difficult to secure perfect immobility, and esi^ecially 

 those which are accompanied by severe contusions and lacerations 

 in the soft parts ; the protrusion of fragments through the skin ; 

 the division of blood vessels by the broken ends of the bone ; the 

 existence of an articulation near the point to which inflammation 

 is likely to extend ; the luxation of a fragment of the bone ; lacer- 

 ation of the periosteum ; the presence of a large number of bony 

 particles, the result of the crushing of the bone — aU these are cir- 

 cumstances which discourage a favorable prognosis, and weigh 

 against the hope of saving the patient for future usefulness. 



Fractures which may be accounted curable are those which are 



