DISEASES OF THE HEART. 807 



serviceable. The author never hesitates to treat fractures of 

 these bones in horses that are of sufficient vahie to warrant it. 

 Indeed, union of the parts in such fractures will often take 

 place, even if the animal be turned into a field without any 

 treatment ; though, perhaps, more deformity will be left than 

 if proper care had been exercised. The horse, if active and 

 high-strung, should be kept upon his feet by tying up the head 

 short for several days, and then the slings may be placed under 

 him ; if this is done at first, the animal being full of fire throws 

 himself off his feet, and all efforts to remedy the fracture will 

 prove a failure. From six to eight weeks, according to the 

 age of the animal, are necessary to complete the union of the 

 parts. 



Some practical knowledge is requisite, in order to discrimi- 

 nate cases' of fracture of the limbs that are likely to be success- 

 fully treated ; but fractures of the haunch bones rarely fail to 

 unite, with proper management. The animal should be kept 

 on bran mashes, gruel, and green food during the treatment. 



DISEASES OF THE HEART. 



Diseases of the heart are less understood by the members of 

 the veterinary profession generally than any other class of dis- 

 eases (with, perhaps, one or two exceptions,) to which horses 

 are subject. This want of information in this country, is attri- 

 butable to the comparative infancy of veterinary science, the 

 obscurity of the symptoms by which these diseases are charac- 

 terized, the consequent confounding of them with other diseases, 



