DISEASES OF HORSES AND CATTLE. 199 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



FRACTURES AND DISEASES OP BONES. 



Fractures usually occur from violence, such as 

 a kick, slipping and falling, and sometimes from 

 violent contracting of the muscles. The bones of 

 old animals are much easier broken than those of 

 the young. Bones are more readily fractured by 

 a diseased condition, and at times the bones are 

 more brittle than at others, and a trivial cause may 

 produce fracture, as I have known fractures to oc- 

 cur while a horse was traveling on a level, hard 

 road. The bones of most healthy animals will 

 bend slightly, and for this reason will often pre- 

 vent fracture. There is a little elasticity to all 

 bones, especially to the young. Simple fracture 

 is where the bone is broken without wounding the 

 soft parts. Compound or open when there is an 

 open wound communicating with the broken bone. 

 Comminuted when the bone is broken into several 

 fragments. Complicated when together with the 

 fracture there is serious injuries of the adjoining 

 structures, lacerated, open joint, or serious con- 

 tusion of the tissues. In the majority of cases the 

 only kind of fracture that is worth treating is the 

 simple, for the reason that it is impossible to keep 

 the animal quiet, and that the ends of a fractured 

 bone with wounded flesh will keep up the irrita- 



