248 INJURIES. 



lameness is so excessive that the animal, hardly touching the ground with 

 the toe, durst not impose the slightest weight upon the limb, and has no 

 power whatever to move it, but in walking drags it along. In such a case 

 as this, the fracture, on manipulation, will prove too evident to admit 

 of any question. Any motion almost given to the limb will produce 

 audible crepitus; and when the limb is lifted and carried forward and let 

 suddenly drop, the foot falls, lifeless as it were, down upon the ground. 

 Lord Glamis's " Stranger," in running the steeple-chase at Windsor, in 

 April, 1844, alighting, after jumping over a brook, fractured the hu- 

 merus. The spherical head was split across, into nearly equal halves, and 

 the fracture extended into the body of the bone, ending six inches from 

 the summit. The lower half of the shaft of the bone and elbow -joint 

 were perfect. The fracture was occasioned by one foot descending upon 

 the pastern of the other. Locomotion is impeded, and the lameness great. 

 To discover crepitation, keep the hand upon the part while the animal is 

 made to walk, or during the time an assistant moves the limb. Generally 

 speaking, fractures of the bones composing the shoulder are hopeless. 

 Any recoveries that have taken place, are attributable to natural causes. 

 Notwithstanding these considerations, should the animal be a valuable 

 one, and the fracture not complicated, we may make a trial at the cure. 

 Cases are related of fractured humeri^ in which the horses were kept 

 suspended, and bandages applied around the limb. One veterinarian had 

 the pavement taken up, and dug a hole, in which, during suspension, the 

 fractured limb hung unmolested, while the others touched the ground. 



Fractured Arm is more frequent than broken shoulder. The separa- 

 tion is almost always an oblique one, and commonly coumiences about 

 the lower third of the bone. It is readily discovered, providing there be 

 displacement, by the mobility perceptible in the bone, by the deformity 

 and shortening of the limb. In this case the obstacles to recovery are 

 not so great as in the shoulder. Reduction here is practicable. Still, 

 when the fracture is oblique, and there is much displacement, the diffi- 

 culties of keeping the bones in position are extreme, their tendency being 

 to slide off. Four splints, one for each surface, will suffice when the 

 displacement is not considerable : the external one being long enough to 

 reach above the joint of the elbow, while they all extend as far down as 

 the middle of the cannon. 



IVIr. Gloag has furnished an instructive case. A cart-horse, while 

 grazing, received a kick a little above the knee ; this immediately lamed 

 it, though still able to walk. The next day, being turned in the stable, 

 the leg suddenly gave way ; a circumstance which rendered the fracture 

 obvious. It was a simple fracture of the radius. The ends could be 

 heard grating against each other when advancing the leg. The animal 

 was placed in a sling, but not raised off the ground. The ends of the 



