FRACTURES. 



251 



not suffice to invest it with immunity in regard to fractures. It 

 contributes its shai'e to the list of accidents of this description, 

 sometimes in consequence of external violence and sometimes as 

 the result of muscular contraction ; sometimes it takes place at 

 the upper extremity of the bone; sometimes at the lower; some- 

 times at the head, when the condyles become implicated ; but it is 

 principally found in the body or diaphysis. The fracture may be 

 of any of the ordinary forms, simple or compound, complete or in- 

 complete, transverse or oblique, etc. A case of the comminuted 

 \ ariety is recorded in which eighty-five fragments of bone were 

 counted and removed. 



The thickness of the muscular covering sometimes renders the 

 diagnosis difficult by interfering with the manipulation, but the 

 crepitation test is readily available even when the swelling is con- 

 siderable and which is likely to be the case as the result of the in- 



FiG. 276.— Fracture, with Shortening. 



