246 INJURIES. 



but then how are we to prevent their relapsing inwards? How to stay air 

 getting into the chest? In general, we must trust to the bandage round 

 the chest, it not being advisable to make any artificial wound; such 

 means as are proper for a man being ineffectual in horses. 



Fractured Pelvis, though rare, yet is apt to be of serious moment, 

 from the organs contained within it being injured. When the fracture 

 is internal we have small means of discovering it, notwithstanding it be 

 followed by suppuration, caries, and even gangrene: though when it is 

 external we discover it at once, from the change of form. The best 

 mode of examination for a fractured pelvis — where the nature of the 

 injury is not manifest externally — is to introduce the arm far into the 

 rectum, and with that change position and manipulate, while an assistant 

 lifts and flexes or extends the hind limb, or moves it backward and 

 forward, according as required. 



Three cases of fracture of the pelvis have come to my knowledge. One 

 was a troop-mare, which fell with Corporal -Major Burlinson at Windsor. 

 The other two occurred to John Field. One was that of a horse against 

 whose hip a carriage ran, breaking off the os innominata at the ischium, 

 and driving the head of the femur against the acetabulum, fracturing the 

 former into several pieces, and protruding through the fractured cavity 

 into the pelvis : it ruptured the peritoneum. The other was that of a mare 

 which Field had cast to fire. It fell awkwardly upon the hip, John 

 (farrier) hearing something " crack," and Field himself suspecting some- 

 thing amiss. After lying a while, being released, the animal could only 

 raise itself upon one haunch. It died ; and on examination the os in- 

 nominata was found broken in two at the narrow or ischial part ; the 

 acetabulum was fractured into six pieces, through which the head of the 

 femur had been forced into the pelvis, without^ however, rupturing the 

 peritoneum. 



In some cases all six bones of the pelvis are fractured, causing the hind 

 quarters to drag upon the ground. When it is the projecting spine of 

 the ilium that is broken, union will soon take place again. In the case of 

 separation, however, the broken piece, by the action of the muscles, is 

 drawn from its natural position. 



M. Levrat relates a case of a mare that fractured the right side of the 

 ilium in leaping a wide ditch. The lameness occasioned was such that 

 the toe of the foot scarcely touched the ground, as long as progression 

 was at all rapid : but in slow paces the foot was placed flat down, though 

 the limb was moved forward with difficulty. By applying the right hand 

 to the fractured part, and seizing the stifle with the left, he felt a move- 

 ment of part of the pelvis. This enabled him to determine the existence 

 of fracture, which was unaccompanied with displacement. The mare was 



