224 THE HORSE 



cut with the surgeon's knife. Many of these injuries are 

 accompanied by a good deal of contusion, or bruising, 

 consequently there is a considerable amount of swelling 

 often accompanying the injury. This is particularly the 

 case in the so-called "broken knee" of a horse, usually 

 produced by falling on hard ground ; a kick from another 

 horse is sometimes of a similar nature, but very often an 

 injury of this kind produces a fracture, as commonly ob- 

 served in many of the army horses during the last Great 

 War. When a wound is in the nature of a stab, like that 

 from a bayonet or from some sharp, penetrating body, 

 it is spoken of as " punctured," and punctured wounds 

 are most frequently met v/ith in the feet of horses, through 

 " picked-up nail," and when the farrier pricks the foot 

 during shoeing.* These are among some of the worst 

 injuries to which horses are liable, at any rate so far as 

 their course and termination is concerned. Wounds about 

 the feet can never be treated in a spirit of levity, but 

 should be examined by a veterinary surgeon and dealt 

 with according to his instructions. The size of a wound 

 is no criterion as to the ultimate result, as the most 

 trivial abrasions are occasionally followed by the death 

 of the animal through some disease such as tetanus, or 

 lockjaw. Quite commonly we find most extensive wounds 

 in horses, especially about the buttocks and quarters, 

 on the shoulder, and sometimes on the side, but capable 

 of appearing in any situation. Some extraordinary 

 wounds in horses were met with during the Allies' war 

 as the result of bomb explosions, shrapnel, etc. Thou- 

 sands of horses were either killed or destroyed as the 

 result of gunfire or some other form of explosion. A 

 compound wound is one in which there is a fracture in 

 addition to the wound. This, of course, materially adds 

 to the treatment of the injury ; in fact, it may necessi- 

 tate destruction of the animal. As to fractures or 

 broken bones, any bone in the body, no matter how 



* A common cause of " Quittor." 



