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and scientific introduction of heat into the structure with a view to a given 

 effect upon a diseased organ or tissue by an expert surgeon. The first 

 is one of the degrees of mere burning. The other is scientific cauteriza- 

 tion, and is a surgical manipulation which should be committed exclu- 

 sively to the practised hand of the veterinary surgeou. 



Either firing aloue or stimulation with blisters is of great eificacy for 

 the relief of lameness from bone spavin. Failure to produce relief after 

 a few applications and after allowiuga sufficient interval of rest, should 

 be followed by a second, or, if needed, a third firing. 



lu case of further failure there is a reserve of certain special opera 

 tions which have been tried and recommended, among which thosu of 

 tarsal tenotomy, iieriosteotomy, the division of nervous branches, etc., 

 may be mentioned. These, hovrever, belong to the peculiar domain of 

 the veterinary practitioner, and need not now engage our attention. 



FRACTURES. 



In technical language a fracture is a " solution of continuity in the 

 structure or substance of a bone," and it ranks among the most serious 

 of the lesions to which the horse — or any animal — can be subject. It 

 is a subject of special interest to veterinarians, and to horse owners as 

 well, in view of the variety of forms in which it may occur, as well as 

 of the loss of time to which it subjects the patient, and the consequent 

 suspension of his earning capacits'. Though of less serious consequence 

 in the horse than in man, it is always a matter of grave imjiort. It is 

 always slow and tedious in healing, and is frequently of doubtful and 

 uusatisfactorj" result. 



This solution of continuity may take i)lace in two principal ways. In 

 the most numerous instances it includes the total thickness of the bone 

 and IS a complete fracture. In other cases it involves a portion only of 

 the thickness of the bone, and for that reason is described as incomplete. 

 If the bone is divided into two separate portions, and the soft parts 

 Lave received no injury, the fracture is a simple one; or it becomes 

 compound if the soft parts have suflered laceration, and comminuted if 

 the bones have been crushed or ground into fragments, many or few. 

 The direction of the break also determines its further classification. 

 Broken at a right angle it is transverse; at a different angle it becomes 

 oblique, and it may be longitudinal or lengthwise. In a complete frac- 

 ture, especially of the oblique kind, there is a condition of great impor- 

 tance in respect to its effect upon the ultimate result of the treatment, 

 in the fact that from various causes, such as muscular contractions or 

 excessive motion, the bony fragments do not maintain their mutual 

 coaptation, but become separated at the ends, and this fact has made 

 it necessarv to add another descri])tive term in the words — with dis- 

 placement. And this term again suggests its negative, and introduces 

 the fracture loithout displacement, when the facts justify that descrip- 

 tion. Again, a fracture may be intraarticular or extraarticular, as it 



