256 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



FRACTURE OF THE PELVIS 



The large size of the pelvis, its projecting angles and position, render it 

 specially liable to fracture, and modern road-making in our large towns 

 contributes not a little to this result. Wood pavement, when the surface 

 is first moistened with water, is rendered difficult to travel over at any 

 time, but with heavy loads behind them, where the ground is on the 

 ascent, or slopes, as it usually does, from the centre towards the sides, 



Fig. 345. Fracture ot the Pelvis 



A, Fracture through the Cotyloid Cavity. B, Fracture of the Symphysis Pubis. c, Transverse 

 Fracture of the Os Pubis. D, External Fracture of the Ischium. E, Fracture of the External Iliac 

 Angle. F, Fracture of the Internal Iliac Angle, u, Fracture of the Tuberosity of the Ischium. 



heavy horses frequently fail to keep their legs, and suffer fracture of this 

 bone by a heavy and helpless fall. When the fall is on the side, and the 

 force is applied to the point of the haunch, a portion of the angle of the 

 ilium may be broken away from its body, or the fracture may take place in 

 some remote and deeply seated part. Draught-horses, when moving heavy 

 loads in two-wheeled carts, are sometimes brought to the ground by their 

 hind-limbs suddenly slipping away from them right and left, when the 

 pelvis is forced to the breaking-point by the weight of the load on the 

 one hand and the struggles of the animal on the other. 



Blows on the hip while passing at high speed through doorways and 

 gates, or by collision with some other fast-moving body, are also account- 

 able for accidents of this kind, and in rare instances fracture has been 

 brought about by "casting", or in the course of a surgical operation. In 

 the hunting-field and the chase, horses have fractured their hips while 

 jumping, as well as by dropping the hind-quarters into a drain as the 

 result of failure to clear a bank. 



From these and other causes fracture of the pelvis may take place in 

 one or another of its various parts. Breakage of the point of the haunch 

 (hip down) is the most frequent form which the accident assumes. Less 

 frequently the body or the neck of the ilium may break, or the pubis or 



