304 



We now return to the Jirst items in onr classification of tlie varie- 

 ties of lameness, for the purpose of bringing them in turn under an 

 orderly revicAV, and our first examination will include those which 

 belong to the first category, or the complete kind. Irregularity in the 

 performance of the functions of the apparatus to Avhich the fractured 

 bone belongs is a necessary consequence of the existing lesion, and 

 this is lameness. If the broken bone belongs to one of the extremities, 

 the impossibility of the performance of its natural function, in sus- 

 taining the weight of the body and contributing to the act of locomo- 

 tion, is usually complete, though the degree of iDowerlessness avIU 

 vaiy according to the kind of fracture and the bone which i:i injured. 

 •For example, a fracture of the cannon bone without displacement, or 

 of one of the x^halanges which are surrounded and sustained by a 

 complex fibrous structure, is, in a certain degree, not incompatible 

 with some amount of resting of the foot. But on the contrary, if the 

 shank bone, or that of the forearm be the implicated member, it would 

 be verj^ difficult for the leg to exercise any agency whatever in the 

 support of the body. And in a fracture of the lower jaw it would be 

 obviously futile to expect it to contribute materially to the masticji- 

 tion of food. 



A fracture seldom occurs which is not accompanied witli a degree 

 of deformity, greater or less, of the region or the leg affected. This 

 is due to the exudation of the blood into the meshes of the surround- 

 ing tissues and to the displacement which occurs between the frag- 

 ments of the bones, with subsequentlj^ the swelling which follows 

 the inflammation of the surrounding tissues. The character of the 

 deformit}^ will mainly depend upon the manner in which the displace- 

 ment occurs. 



In a normal state of things the legs perform their movements with 

 the joints as their only centers or bases of action, witli no i^articipa- 

 tion of intermediate points, while with a fracture the flexibility and 

 motion which will be observed at unnatural points are among the most 

 strongly characteristic signs of the lesion. No one need be told that 

 when the shaft of a limb is seen to bend midway between the joints, 

 with the lower portion swinging freel}^, that the leg is broken. But 

 there are still some conditions where the excessive mobilit}^ is not 

 easj' to detect with certainty. Such are the cases where the fracture 

 exists in a short bone, near a movable joint, or in a bone. of a region 

 where several short and small bones are united in a group, or even in 

 a long bone where its situation is such that the muscular covering 

 prevents the visible manifestation of the sj^mptom. 



If the situation of a fracture pi'ecludes its discovery by means of 

 this abnormal flexibility, other detective methods remain. And after 

 all there is one decisive sign which, though it may not avail in every 

 case, as it does not, is in cases where its testimony can be secured 

 absolute and positive beyond question. This is crepiirdiou, or the 



