CEUKAL MYOTOMY. 



309 



Pig. 325.— The Biceps Femoris in Cattle. 

 Normal Position. 



Fig. 326.— The same over the 

 Trochanter. 



turning in its normal direction. This accident lias been noticed 

 and mentioned in the remotest ages. It may result from both 

 predisposing and occasional causes. Among the former may be 

 reckoned the conformation of the animal, as when, for example, 

 the croup is short, flat and narrow, the hip joint not prominent, 

 and the trochanter high. Among the predisposing causes may 

 also be included that of leanness, as when the animal is thin and 

 in poor condition, and the cellular tissue deficient. The combina- 

 tion of these causes renders it easy for the muscle to slip over the 

 trochanter, now relatively prominent, and it is thus that the dis- 

 location occurs. 



Occasional causes also call for mention. These include all 

 mischances likely to bring about the excessive extension of the leg, 

 such as falls, missteps, slipping, jumping, kicking, blows, etc., 

 any of which may thus affect the limb and jDroduce the lesion 

 under consideration. And withal, it may take place without any 

 ^isible, direct and efificient agency beyond the circumstance of the 

 excessively lean condition of the animal, and even if the difficulty 

 is remedied, and the displacement is reduced, while the same 

 state of things continues, there is a constant liability to a return 

 of the difficultv. 



