FRACTURES. 235 



nutritive gruels selected for liis sustenance, until the consolidation 

 is sufficiently advanced to permit the ingestion of food of a more 

 solid consistency. The callus will usually be sufficiently hardened 

 in two or three weeks to allow of a change of diet to mashes of 

 cut hay and scalded grain, until the removal of the dressing re- 

 stores him to his old habit of mastication. 



Fractures of vertebrm. — These are not very common, but when 

 they do occur the bones most frequently injured are those of the 

 back and loins. The ordinary causes of fracture are responsible 

 here as elsewhere, such as heavy blows on the spinal column, severe 

 falls while conveying heavy loads, and especially violent efforts in 

 resisting the process of casting. Although occurring more or less 

 frequently under the latter circumstances, the accident is not always 

 attributable to carelessness or error in the management. It mav 

 of course, sometimes result from such a cause as a badly prejDared 

 bed, or the accidental presence of a hard body concealed in the 

 straw, or to a heavy fall when the movements of the patient have 

 not been sufficiently controlled by an effective apparatus and its 

 skillful adaptation, but it is quite as likely to be caused by the 

 violent resistance and the consequent powerful muscular contrac- 

 tion by the frightened patient. The sim- 

 ple fact of the overarching of the vertebral 

 column, with excessive pressure against 

 it from the intestinal mass, owing to the 

 spasmodic action of the abdominal mus- 

 cles, may account for it, and so also may 

 the struggles of the animal to escape from 

 the restraint of the hobbles while frantic 

 under the pain of an operation without 

 anaesthesia. In these cases the fractui-e 

 usually occm-s in the body or the annular 

 part, or both, of the posterior dorsal or 

 FiG.sfio.-Fiactureof the Body the anterior lumbar vertebra. AATien the 

 of a Dorsal Vertebra,. ^inverse processes of the last-named 



bones are injured, it is probably in consequence of heavy concus- 

 sion incident to striking the ground when cast. Diagnosis of a 

 fracture of the body of a vertebra is not always easy, especially 

 when quite recent, and more especially when there is no accom- 

 panying displacement. There are certain pecuHar signs accom- 

 panjdng the occurrence of the accident while an operation is in 



