124 PARTICULAR FRACTURES. 



covery is hopeless ; all the others being curable, provided the 

 fracture is not due to previous disease of the bones, namely — 

 fragilitus or mollities ossium. 



Fracture of the shaft, or into the foramen ovale, may occur 

 without immediate displacement, and the animal show no sign 

 of lameness until such displacement occurs. 



In a case which once came under my observation, it was 

 found that the fracture was of several weeks' standing, although 

 the horse had worked perfectly sound in a carriage up to the 

 time of the displacement.^ 



The fracture arose from mollities ossium, which was present 

 also in the tarsal and other bones ; and when displacement 

 occurred the animal was at work upon a level road, and going 

 at ordinary speed. He did not fall, but suddenly became very 

 lame. 



It has been already stated that fracture through the aceta- 

 bulum is hopeless, therefore no time should be lost in putting 

 the animal out of pain; but in the other forms, the patient 

 should be slung, and in order to do something to keep the parts 

 at rest, a stiff pitch-plaster ought to be applied to the whole 

 quarter. Apparent recovery will take place in from two to 

 three months, but care should be taken not to put the animal to 

 work too soon. 



If the horse has to be moved any distance after the occur- 

 rence of any of the curable fractures mentioned, his movements 

 will be made very much easier by the attendants tying a cord 

 round the foot of the lame limb, to assist in its extension, and 

 to prevent the toe coming to the ground first ; for it will be seen 

 that if the toe strike the ground first, the patient will knuckle 

 over at the fetlock to a most alarming degree ; indeed, this 

 knuckling over will sometimes be so great as to cause the 

 animal to fall to the ground. Cases of this kind have repeatedly 

 occurred in my experience, and by the simple expedient here 

 mentioned — the attendant taking care to pull the foot forwards, 

 and rather upwards before it touches the ground, so as to 

 ensure its falling flat — the animal has walked with compara- 

 tive ease. 



^ I had diagnosed this to be a fracture of long standing before he was destroyed, 

 and arrived at this conclusion from the fact that there was much thickening and 

 indolent swelling to be felt per rectum. 



