FRACTURES. 329 



bones, and is oftener fractured. The fracture is generally an oblique ^ne, and about 

 two-thirds from the summit of the limb. It is immediately detected by the altered 

 action, and ditTerent appearance of the limb. It is not so difficult of reduction as 

 either the humerus or the scapula, when the fracture is towards the middle of tho 

 bone. A great quantity of tow saturated with pitch must be placed around the elbow, 

 and confined with firm adhesive plasters, the ground being hollowed away in the fron* 

 of the injured leg, so that no pressure shall be made by that foot. 



Fracture of the femur. — Considering the masses of muscle that surround thit 

 bone, and the immense weight which it supports, it would naturally be deemed im ■ 

 possible to reduce a real fracture of the femur. If the divided bones are ever united, 

 it is a consequence of the simple repose of the parts, and their tendency to unite 

 Professor Dick, however, relates a very singidar and interesting account of the cure 

 of fracture of the femur. He was requested to attend a bay mare that had met with 

 an accident in leaping a sunken fence. He found a wound in the stifle of the hind 

 leg running transversely across the anterior of the articulation, about an inch and a 

 half in length, and in it was a portion of bone that had been fractured, and that had 

 escaped from its situation towards the inside of the stifle, where it was held by a por- 

 tion of ligament. The isolated nature of the fractured portion, the difficulty, or rather 

 impossibility of replacing it in its situation, and the few vessels which the connecting 

 medium possessed, rendered it impossible that union v;ould be effected ; he therefore 

 determined to remove it. 



Having enlarged the wound, and divided the portion of capsular ligament which 

 retained it in its place, he extracted the bone, and found it to be the upper part of the 

 inner anterior condyle of the femur, measuring three inches in length, one inch and a 

 half in breadth, and about an inch in thickness, and being in shape nearly similar to 

 the longitudinal section of a hen's egg. 



After the removal of the bone, the animal seemed very much relieved ; the wound 

 was firmly sewed up, adhesive strapping applied over it, and the part kept wet with 

 cold water. 



, Two days afterwards considerable swelling had taken place ; she seemed to suflfer 

 much, and there was some oozing from the wound. Fomentations were again applied, 

 and she was slung. 



She now began rapidly to improve, and, although one of the largest articulations in 

 the body had been laid open and a part of the articular portion of the bone removed, 

 the wound healed so rapidly that in three weeks she walked with little lameness to a 

 loose box. At the expiration of another three weeks the Professor again visited her. 

 >0n being led out she trotted several times along the stable yard, apparently sound, 

 with the exception of moving the limb in a slight degree wider than usual, and so 

 completely was the part recovered that, had it not been for a small scar that remained, 

 a stranger could not have known that such an accident had taken place.* 



Fracture of the patella. — This does occasionally, though very seldom occur. 

 It is usually the consequence of violent kicks, or blows, and if this singular bone is 

 once disunited, no power can bring the divided portions of the bone together again. 



Fracture of the tibia. — This affection is of more frequent occurrence, and of 

 more serious consequence than we were accustomed to imagine it to be. Mr. Trump, 

 twelve years ago, first called the attention of the profession to some singular circum- 

 stances connected with the tibia. A large draught-horse belonging to the Dowlais 

 Iron Company, at Merthyr Tydvil, came in from his labour very lame in the near 

 hind leg, but with no visible sign of any severe injury being received. The foot was 

 searched, but nothing farther was done. He stood in the stable several days, and 

 then was turned into a field, and was discovered one morning with the limb depend- 

 ent, and a fracture of the tibia just above the hock. 



Fourteen or sixteen months after that, another horse came home from a journey of 

 seven miles, lame, with a slight mark on the inside of the thigh — a mere scratch, and 

 very little tumefaction. There was nothing to account for such severe lameness: but, 

 a few mornings afterwards, the tibia was seen to be fractured. The front of the bone 

 was splintered as from a blow. 



Two months after that, another horse had been observed to be lame seven or eight 

 days. A slight scratch was observed on the inside of the thigh, with a little swell- 



* Veterinarian, vol. ii. p. 140. 

 28 2r 



