FRACTURES. 451 



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 would be effected ; he therefore deter- 

 mined to remove it. 



Having enlarged the wound, and divided the portion of capsular liga- 

 ment 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 appHed over it, and 

 the part kept wet with cold water. 



Two days afterwards considerable swelling had taken place ; she seemed 

 to suffer 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 ■ndth little lameness to a loose box. At the expiration 

 of another three weeks, the Professor again \'isited her. On 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 Avas the part covered that, had it not been for a small scar 

 that remained, a sti'anger could not have known that such an accident had 

 taken place. 



Fractdre 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 por- 

 tions 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 pro- 

 fession to some singular circumstances connected with the tibia, in the 

 third volume of the ' Vetermarian.' 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 dependent, 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 : biTt a few mornings afterwards, the 

 tibia was seen to be fractured. The front of the bone was sjjlintered 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 Httle swelling, and increased heat and tenderness just above 

 the hock. Mr. Tmmp had examined the foot during the time that the 

 horse stood in the stable, not being satisfied that the apparently slight 

 injury on the thigh could account for the lameness. He was turned to 

 grass, and three days afterwards the tibia was found broken at the part 

 mentioned, and evidently from a blow. Were there not positive proof of 



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