PARTICULAR FRACTURES. 247 



kept in a stall for three weeks ; then permitted to go loose in a box. In 

 two months it was mounted and exercised at a foot-pace. After another 

 month it was quite sound. 



Fractured Bones of the Tail. — They are, in general, easy of 

 detection, by tracing the processes downwards. Setting them is effected 

 by raising the tail, and maintaining it in the erect position either by a 

 crouper constructed for the purpose, or by means of pulleys. In twenty- 

 five or thirty days callus will have become sufficiently matured to give 

 the tail its liberty. 



Fractured Bones or the Limbs may, in general, be regarded as in- 

 curable, especially those of the scapula, humerus, femur, and tibia ; on 

 account of the difficulty in effecting reduction, and the impossibility of 

 keeping the parts in their places, or of preventing the muscles from 

 moving them. Too often fractures of the bones below these are equally 

 hopeless, if we except the pasterns and coffin ; nevertheless there are 

 many instances on record of fractured legs doing well. 



Fractured Scapula is rare, on account of the mobility of the bone 

 and the protection it receives from muscles. Fractured neck of the 

 scapula is the common form in which we meet with this accident. It may 

 be either longitudinal or transverse : in the former case, the glenoid cavity 

 must be split. Such an accident is difficult of detection. The animal is 

 lame, and bears no weight upon the limb, rather dragging it after 

 than putting it forward. With the hand upon the point of the shoulder 

 at the time an assistant is moving the limb, one may possibly find 

 crepitation. Godine relates a case in which the scapula was fractured 

 through its body. He saw it on the second day, and found that effusion 

 appeared to have pre'served the fragments in their places. The nature of 

 the accident was made manifest by a grating noise whenever the shoulder 

 moved. Godine covered the shoulder and arm with a thick layer of 

 pitch; he afterwards applied a linen bandage after the manner of the 

 figure of 8 across the shoulder, and around the neck, withers, and elbow, 

 thereby in some measure fixing the shoulder to the chest. The horse 

 after this was turned into a paddock. On the twenty- fifth day he bore 

 lightly on the limb ; at which time the dressings were renewed. The 

 shoulder had wasted so much that the callus was perceptible. On the 

 fifty-second day the dressings were entirely removed. The animal was 

 still very lame. The shoulder was fired. Four months from the accident, 

 the animal did not walk lame, but still halted in the trot. The callus was 

 no longer perceptible." 



Fractured Humerus. — Short, and strong as the os liumeri is, still it 

 is not exempt from accidents of this nature. The fracture is mostly 

 oblique, and sometimes runs from one end of the bone to the other. 

 And when the bone, in this manner, is, as it were, " split in two," the 



