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preferred to that of securing apposition by means of plaster of Paris. In 

 the case of a limb, when it is purposed to employ splints, one is placed on 

 each side of the injured member ; and then a bandage covered with plaster 

 of Paris or starch is wound not too firmly round the whole. It is well, before 

 adjusting the splints, to place tow or lint around the injured limb, so as to 

 fill up the gaps and irregularities of the surface. When there is an external 

 wound, this must be left exposed to the air, and thus an aperture corresponding 

 with the open injury must be left in the splint. In most instances, it will be 

 necessary to allow the splints or charge to remain in place for six to eight 

 weeks. At the end of this time, they may be removed, and bandages should 

 then be firmly applied. The animal cannot be exercised, until after the 

 lapse of at least sixteen to eighteen weeks, after sustaining the injury. If the 

 animal manifests great pain, an ounce or two of tincture of opium may be 

 administered. During the treatment of the injury, the bowels should be 

 regulated by the administration of an occasional dose of physic ; and the 

 animal should be fed on a nutritious laxative diet, consisting of oatmeal 

 gruel, grass, and carrots. 



The fractures we most commonly meet with are those of the pastern 

 bone, skull, thigh bone, tibia, and back. Fracture of the pastern bones 

 generally occurs as the result of hard and fast riding and galloping, over 

 irregular ground. Sometimes a pastern bone is broken in one part, and in 

 other cases in several. The long pastern bone is more often fractured than 

 the short. This injury, contrary to what might be anticipated, is not in every 

 instance attended by marked signs. Lameness, however, in most cases is 

 very pronounced, and the poor animal is not able to bring his foot down to 

 the ground. Distortion of the parts may or may not be manifest, but pain 

 and swelling are generally present. In those instances where the bone is 

 broken in several places, treatment is generally noL successful ; but when only 

 broken in one place, and when little or no displacement occurs, recovery is 

 to be expected. At the same time it may be mentioned that an animal so 

 injured is, after recovery, rarely fit for fast work again. The animal should 

 be placed in slings in the first place, and the shoe should be removed. The 

 best method of treating the injury is to fill up the hollow behind the pastern 

 A\ith tow charged with pitch, and then to wind a narrow bandage nine or ten 

 feet long similarly charged around the limb. When the bone has united, 

 as it probably will have done, in the course of about five or six weeks, the 

 charge may be removed ; and, if there be much swelling, owing to the new 

 bone thrown out, the part should be smartly blistered. 



By broken back, we understand fracture of one of the vertebrae or bones 

 of the back, a most serious injury, generally caused by a violent fall. 

 Sometimes, as we mentioned in treating of sprains, broken back is difficult 

 to distinguish from sprain of the muscles of the back. The former is 

 necessarily of far greater danger, and, though often a remediable accident, 

 when the fracture involves one of the vertebral bones, from which the ribs 

 extend to encircle the chest cavity, it is nearly always fatal, when the column 

 of bones is broken in the region of the loins. In the latter case, the paralysis, 



