FRACTURES. 2*99 



occur most frequently. The long bones, those especially which belong 

 to the extremities, are most frequently the seat of fractures, from the 

 circumstance of their superficial position, their exposure to contact 

 and collision, and the violent muscular efforts involved both in their 

 constant rapid movement and their labor in the shafts or at the pole 

 of heavy and heavily laden carriages. 



The relation between sundry idiosyncrasies and diatheses and a lia- 

 bility to fractures is too constant and well-established a pathological 

 fact to need more than a passing reference. The history of rachitis, 

 of melanosis, and of osteoporosis, as related to an abnormal frangi- 

 bility of the bones, is a part of our common medical knowledge. 

 There are few persons who have not known of cases among their 

 friends of frequent and almost spontaneous fractures, or at least of 

 such as seem to be produced by the slightest and most inadequate vio- 

 lence, and there is no tangible reason for doubting an analogous con- 

 dition in individuals of the equine race. Among local predisposing 

 causes mention must not be omitted of such bony diseases as caries, 

 tuberculosis, and others of the same class. 



Exciting, occasional, or " efficient " causes of fracture are in most 

 instances external traumatisms, as violent contacts, collisions, falls, 

 etc., or sudden muscular contractions. These external accidents are 

 various in their character, and are usually associated with quick mus- 

 cular exertion, A violent, ineffectual effort to move too heavy a load ; 

 a semispasmodic bracing of the frame to avoid a fall or resist a pres- 

 sure ; a quick jump to escape a blow ; stopping too suddenly after 

 speeding; struggling to liberate a foot from a rail, perhaps to be 

 thrown in the effort — all these are familiar and easy examples of acci- 

 dents happening hourly by which our equine servants become suffer- 

 ers, "We may add to these the fracture of the bones of the vertebrae, 

 occurring when casting a j^atient for the purpose of undergoing a 

 surgical operation, quite as much as the result of muscular contrac- 

 tion as of a preexisting diseased condition of the bones. A fracture 

 occurring under these circumstances may be called with propriety 

 indirect^ while one which has resulted from a blow or a fall differ- 

 ently caused is of the direct kind. 



Symptoms. — We now return to the first items in our classification 

 of the varieties of fractures for the purpose of bringing them in turn 

 under an orderly review, and our first examination will include those 

 which belong to the first category, or the complete kind. Irregu- 

 larity in the performance of the functions of the apparatus to which 

 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 func- 

 tion in sustaining the weight of the body and contributing to the act 

 of locomotion is usually complete, though the degree of disability 



