306 BUllEAU OF ANIilAL INDUSTRY. 



fracture of an inferior degree maj^ be transformed to one of the sever- 

 est kind, and, indeed, a curable changed to an incurable injury. We 

 recall a case in which a fast trotting horse, after running away in a 

 fright caused by the whistle of a locomotive, was found on the road 

 limping with excessive lameness in the off fore leg, and walked with 

 comparative case some 2 miles to a stable before being seen by a sur- 

 geon. His immediate removal in an ambulance was advised, but before 

 that vehicle could be procured the horse lay down, and upon being 

 made to get upon his feet was found with a well-marked comminuted 

 fracture of the os suffraginis, with considerable displacement. The 

 patient, however, after long treatment, made a comparatively good 

 recovery and though with a large bony deposit, a ringbone, was able 

 to" trot among the forties. 



The two obvious indications in cases of fracture are reduction, or 

 replacement, and retention. 



In an incomplete fracture, where there is no displacement, the neces 

 sity of reduction does not exist. With the bone kept in place by ar 

 intact periosteum, and the fragments secured by the uninjured fibrous 

 and ligamentous structure which surrounds them, there is no disloca- 

 tion to correct. Reduction is also at times rendered impossible by the 

 seat of the fracture itself, by its dimensions alone, or by the resist- 

 ance arising from muscular contraction. This is illustrated even in 

 small animals, as in dogs, by the exceeding difiiculty encountered in 

 bringing the ends of a broken femur or humerus together, the mus- 

 cular contraction being even in these animals sufficiently forcible to 

 renew the displacement. 



It is generally, therefore, only fractures of the long bones, and then 

 at points not in close proximity to the trunk, that may be considered 

 to be amenable to reduction. It is true that some of the more superfi- 

 cial bones, as those of the head, of the pelvis, and of the thoracic 

 walls, may in some cases require special manipulations and appliances 

 for their retention in their normal positions, hence the treatment of 

 these and of a fractured leg can not be the same. 



The methods of accomplishing reduction var}^ with the features of 

 each case, the manipulations being necessaril}' modified to meet differ- 

 ent circumstances. If the displacement is in the thickness of the 

 bone, as in transverse fracture, the manipulation of reduction consists 

 in applying constant pressure upon one of the fragments, while the 

 other is kept steady in its place, the object of the pressure being the 

 reestablishment of the exact coincidence of the two bony surfaces. If 

 the displacement has taken place at an angle it will be sufficient in 

 order to effect the reduction to press upon the summit, or apex, of the 

 angle until its disappearance indicates that the parts have been brought 

 into coaptation. This method is often practiced in the treatment of a 

 fractured rib. In a longitudinal fracture, or when the fragments are 



