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DISLOCATIONS. 



These are accidents of less frequent occurrence than frac- 

 tures, and of a nature generally less remediable : still,, they 

 do, occasionally, come under the veterinarian's notice, and 

 therefore demand some portion of his study. 



A dislocation means a displacement of some bone in 

 relation to some other bone, with which it forms a joint. 

 Should a bone have been forced entirehj oat of the socket, 

 the capsular and other restraining ligaments being necessarily 

 ruptured, the dislocation is complete-, but should the dis- 

 placement be short of this, it is partial. 



The Causes may be comprehended under the divisions of 

 external and internal. Outward force may operate to their 

 production ; such as blows, falls, wrenches, contortions, &c. : 

 or they may be caused by violent action of muscles. In 

 some cases, these causes appear to have co-operated. 



The Symptoms of dislocations are thus portrayed by 

 Hurtrel d'Arboval : '' a change in the appearance of the 

 luxated part; inability to put it in motion; lengthening or 

 shortening of it ; a hard prominence where the displaced 

 bone happens to be lodged, and an evident deficiency in the 

 place from which it has been dislodged; a manifest differ- 

 ence between the joint affected and the correspondent one 

 of the other side ; and a particular noise or sound elicited in 

 moving the displaced parts. Acute pain on motion, and 

 considerable tumefaction, are the ordinary accompaniments 

 of these signs." 



The Treatment can seldom be undertaken with prospects 

 of success. The muscular resistance the animal is capable 

 of exerting, and which he cannot be restrained from employ- 

 ing against our efforts to reduce the dislocation, constitutes 

 of itself an obstacle not to be surmounted. Nor do I see 

 the means by which we can conquer this opposition, unless 

 it be by the influence of some such narcotic as chloroform. 

 This difficulty overcome, there remains another arising out 

 of the circumstances of the case : such as the complication 



