PARTICULAR FRACTURES. 245 



quarters aiul thighs, it evinced by motions of the head that it felt the 

 prick, but could not move the limb out of the way of the annoyance. 

 I saw the spine -of this mare three days afterwards, and found the first 

 lumbar vertebra fractured through the body, and one transverse process 

 broken at its junction with the body. — March, 1844. 



Captain Sutton's mare (Jessie) " broke her back " in leaping a brook 

 at the steeple-races at Windsor, April, 1844. It had lost all power of 

 standing up or moving the hind parts, and when put into slings, slipped 

 or fell back in them. It was shot after ineffectually trying to make 

 it stand in the slings. The third, fourth, and fifth lumbar vertebrae 

 were found fractured ; the body of the fourth was completely shattered, 

 exposing the spinsl marrow. 



Fractured Ribs are not always discoverable : the anterior ribs being 

 covered by the fore extremity, it is impossible to detect fracture ; and 

 those likewise placed posteriorly are so thickly covered as to render 

 detection difficult. Those most subject to fracture are such of the true 

 ribs as are behind the elbow : the false ribs, from their yielding motion, 

 are much less liable. The fracture happens almost always about the 

 middle of the thorax, and is commonly oblique. They are occasionally 

 broken into splinters; and these may seriously wound the pleura or 

 lungs. A horse of the regiment (Corporal Brunton's old horse, aged 

 twenty), in being led in watering order, ran against a taxed cart ; one 

 shaft of which penetrated the side, behind the scapula, obliquely in- 

 sinuating itself between the ribs and skin for twelve or fourteen inches 

 in extent, and then abutting against one of the hinder ribs, broke it, and 

 drove the point of the detached portion against the diaphragm, behind 

 which, afterwards, an abscess formed. It lived — without our knowing of 

 the fracture — for three weeks, and, after holding out hopes of recovery, 

 died of irritation. This happened in January, 1835. 



The way to detect these fractures is to trace the rib through its length ; 

 and, should there be any irregularity, to press upon each fragment alter- 

 nately, in order to elicit crepitation. The absence of any displacement, 

 the corpulence of the subject, and consequent tumefaction, may con- 

 siderably obscure the case. 



Treatment. — Simple fracture, without displacement, requires nothing 

 more than a broad roller, which is to be made sufficiently tight to pre- 

 vent any motion of the ribs ; thereby compelling the animal to carry on 

 respiration with the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Should the 

 fractured parts project, place opposite to them a compress, underneath 

 the roller. But when they point inwards, we hardly know what to do 

 to restore them to their position, and know less how to retain them 

 therein. The only plan to set the ribs, is to cut down iq)on the i»arts ; 



