FRACTURES. 239 



nevertheless the animal must be forcibly bound for it to 

 occur. It occasionally happens that a horse cast for opera- 

 tion fractures his spine in the act of struggling while in his 

 fetters ; and we are told the femur and the patella have 

 been broken in this manner. 



Kinds. — With regard to the nature of the injury, a 

 fracture is said to be simple when unaccompanied with other 

 lesion; compound when the bone protrudes through the 

 skin ; and comminuted when the bone is crushed or broken 

 into more than two pieces. As regards the manner in 

 which the bone is broken, fractures are said to be tra7isverse 

 or oblique. 



The Symptoms of fracture will vary in each particular 

 instance; and while, in some, they are too glaring to need 

 any description ; in others they are so obscure as to prove 

 insufficient for us to base any conclusion upon them. Cre- 

 pitus (the grating noise or sensation produced by moving or 

 rubbing the ends of the bones upon each other) is an un- 

 equivocal symptom. Another is, the separation or displace- 

 ment of the fractured portions. A third is, deformity : if it 

 be a limb, shortening likewise. To these may be added, 

 lameness or inability to move; pain evinced on pressure; 

 heat, swelling, and tension, or the approach of inflammation. 



The Prognosis is generally unfavorable. The impa- 

 tience of the animal under surgical restraints ; his great 

 muscular powers, counteracting or defeating any attempts at 

 extension, or counter-extension, we may make ; and the 

 difficulty we experience in adjusting splints and bandages, 

 form so many obstacles to the cure. The only counter- 

 balancing circumstance lies in the vigour of his renovating 

 powers ; callus will form in twenty or thirty days ; while, in 

 a man, the same substance will require forty or fifty days 

 for its formation. The most propitious cases are those which 

 call for the least artificial aid ; — those in which the frac- 

 tured portions of bones suff'er little displacement ; such as 

 the ribs, &c. Simple fractures of the cannon-bone some- 

 times do well. 



I would, in this place, caution the inexperienced veteri- 



