FKACTUEES. -1^7 



what is commonly termed 'broken neck,' is not often met with, and is 

 generally produced by falls or blows. But by far the most frequent seat 

 of fractured vertebrte is in the lumbar region. It sometimes happens in 

 the act of falling, as in leaping a wide ditch ; but it is oftener produced by 

 the violence of some sudden unconscious movement of the animal, such as 

 dropping the hind legs into some unseen grip or trench when going fast 

 \\atli hounds. It has also occurred during the straggles of the animal 

 ■when cast and undergoing some painful operation. 



It is generally sufficiently evident Avhile the horse is on the ground. 

 Either a snap is heard, indicative of the fracture, or the struggles of the 

 hind-limbs suddenly and altogether cease. In a few cases the animal has 

 been able to get up and -walk to his stable ; in others, the existence of the 

 fracture has not been apparent for several houi'S : showing that the verte- 

 bra?, although fractured, may i-emain in their place for a certain period of 

 time. The bone that is broken is usually one of the posterior dorsal or 

 anterior limibar vertebrte. There is no satisfactory case upon record of 

 reunion of the fractured parts. 



In the human being, the depressed portion of the spinal arch and of the 

 fractured vertebra) have been removed by a dexterous operation, and 

 sensibility and the power of voluntary motion have, in cases few and 

 far between, been restored ; but in the horse this has rarely or never been 

 effected. We should consider him a bold operator, but we should not 

 very much dislike him, who made one trial, at least, how far surgical skill 

 might be available here. 



Mr. W. C. Spooner relates an interesting case in the eleventh volume of 

 the ' Veterinarian,' and many such have probably occurred. A horse had 

 been clipped about three weeks, and was afterwards galloped sharply 

 on rough ground, and pulled up suddenly and repeatedly, for the purjDOse 

 of sweating him. After that he did not go so well as before, and would 

 not canter readily, although he had previously been much used to that 

 pace. Two days before he was destroyed, the groom was riding him at 

 a slow pace, when he suddenly gave way behind, and was carried 

 home and could not afterwards stand. He had, doubtless, fi-actured the 

 spine sHghtly when pulled up suddenly, but without displacing the 

 bones. 



M. Dupuy was consulted respecting a mare apparently palsied. She 

 had an uncertain and staggering walk, accompanied by evident pain. 

 After various means of relief had in vain been tried during five-and- 

 twenty days, she was destroyed. A fracture of the last dorsal vertebrae 

 was discovered. It had never been quite complete, and ossific union was 

 beginning to take place. 



Fracture of the ribs. — These fractures are not always easily recog- 

 nised. Those that are covered by the scapula may exist for a long time 

 without beiag detected, and those that are situated posteriorly are so thickly 

 covered by muscles as to render the detection of the injury almost 

 impossible. In the third volume of the ' Veterinarian ' it is related that 

 a man was trying to catch a mare in a field. She leaped at the gate, 

 but failing to clear it, she fell on her back on the opposite side. She lay 

 there a short time, and then got up and trotted to the stable. She was 

 saddled, and her master, a heavy man, cantered her more than three miles. 

 She then became unusually dull and sluggish, and was left on the road. 

 She was bled ; and on the following morning an attempt was made to lead 

 her home. She was not, however, able to travel more than a mile. On 

 the following morning she was evidently in great pain, and a veterinary 

 surgeon, discovering a sKght depression of the spinous processes of the 

 eleventh and twelfth dorsal vertebra?, and detecting a certain crepitus, 



