DISLOCATION OF SHOULDER. 319 



sidt!. Although the masses of muscle about the part make it 

 difficult to determine the exact way in which the dislocation has 

 occurred; we may, if the head of ihe humerus has been carried 

 to the front, feel it as a rounded protuberance with a depression 

 behind it ; which symptom would be reversed, if the head of the 

 humerus be behind the shoulder blade. The dislocated limb will 

 be incapable of almost any movement, and only the toe will touch 

 the ground. When the head of the humerus is pushed forward 

 and outwards, the elbow will be turned in, and the toe pointed 

 out. 



As Rigot and others have observed, this dislocation is frequently 

 complicated by fracture of the head of the humerus, or by a 



Fig. 127. — Clove hitch. 



fracture, at the end of the shoulder blade, passing through the 

 cavity which serves as the shallow socket in which the head of the 

 humerus moves. We can distinguish, as pointed out by Peuch 

 and Toussaint, the fact of fracture of the head of the humerus 

 having occurred, with or without dislocation, by observing that 

 the part has got shorter and that its mobility has increased, and 

 by noting the grating together of the ends of the fractured bone. 

 In dislocation without fracture, there is always unusual stiffness 

 of the limb. 



CHANCES OF RECOVERY.— If a dislocation of the shoulder, 

 uncomplicated by fracture, be undertaken early, and is properly 

 treated, the animal ought, in the majority of cases, to make a 



