FRACTURES. 253 



Her "treatment'' consisted in being tied up in a large box and 

 let alone. In due time she was delivered of a family of puppies, 

 and in three weeks she was running in the streets, limping very 

 sUghtly, and nothing the worse for her accident. 



Fracture of the Patella. — This, fortunately, is a rare accident 

 and can only result from direct violence, as a kick or other blow. 

 The lameness which follows it is accompanied with enormovis 

 tumefaction of the joint and disease of the articulation. The prog- 

 nosis is unavoidably adverse, destruction being the only termi- 

 nation of an incurable and very painful injury. 



Fractures of the Tibia are probably more frequently encoun- 

 tered than any others among the class of accidents we are consid- 

 ering. As with injuries of the forearm of a like character, they 

 may be complete or incomplete; the former when the bone is 

 broken in the middle or at the extremities, and transverse, oblique, 

 or longitudinal. The incomplete kind are more common in this 

 bone than in any other. 



Complete fractures are easy to recognize, either with or without 

 displacement. The animal is very lame, and the leg is either 

 dragged or held up clear from the ground by flexion at the stifle, 

 while the lower part hangs down. Carrying weight or moving 

 backward is imi^ossible. There is excessive mobility below the 

 fracture and well-marked crepitation. If there is much displace- 

 ment, as in an oblique fracture, there will be considerable short- 

 ening of the leg. 



While incomplete fractures cannot be recognized in the tibia 

 with any greater degree of certainty than in any other bone, there 

 are some facts associated with them by which a diagnosis may be 

 justified. The hypothetical history of a case may serve as an 

 illustration : 



An animal has received an injuiy by a blow or a kick on the 

 inside of the bone, perhaps without showing any mark. Becoming 

 very lame immediately afterwards, he is allowed a few days' rest. 

 Being then taken out again, he seems to have recovered his sound- 

 ness, but within a day or two, or even in a shorter time, he be- 

 trays a little soreness, and this increasing he becomes very lame 

 again, to be furloughed once more, with the result of a temporary 

 improvement, and again a return to labor and again a relapse of 

 the lameness ; and this alternation seems to be the rule. The leg 

 being now carefully examined, a local periostitis is readily discov- 



