308 



pressure upon the spinal cord is not yet present; that the animal with a 

 little assistance is able to rise upon his feet and to walk a short dis- 

 tance, it may be well to experiment upon the case to the extent of 

 placing the patient in the most favorable circumstances for recovery, 

 and allow nature to operate without further interference. This may be 

 accomplished by securing immobility of the whole body as much as 

 possible, and especially of the suspected region, by placing the patient 

 in slings, in a stall sufficiently narrow to preclude lateral motion, and 

 covering the loins with a thick coat of agglutinative mixture, watch 

 and wait for developments. 



Fracture of the ribs. — The different regions of the chest are not equally 

 exposed to the violence to which fractures of tbe ribs are due, and 

 they are therefore either more common or more easily discovered, during 

 life, at some points than at others. The more exposed regions are the 

 middle and the posterior, while the front is largely covered and de- 

 fended by the shoulder. A single rib may be the seat of fracture, or a 

 number may be involved, and there may be injuries on both sides of 

 the chest at the same time. It may take place lengthwise, in any part 

 of the bone, though the middle, being the most exposed, is the most 

 frequently hurt. Incomplete fractures are usually lengthwise, involv- 

 ing a portion only of the thickness or one or other of tbe surfaces. 

 The complete kind may be either transverse or oblique, and are most 

 commonly denticulated. The fracture may be comminuted, and a single 

 bone may show one of the complete and one of the incomplete kind, at 

 different points. The extent of surface presented by the thoracic re- 

 gion, with its complete exposure at all points, explains the liability of 

 the ribs to suffer from all the forms of external violence. 



In many instances fractures of these bones continue undiscovered, 

 especially the incomplete variety, without displacement, though the 

 evidences of local pain, a certain amount of swelling and a degree of 

 disturbance of the respiration, if noticed during the examination of a 

 patient, may suggest a suspicion of their existence. Abnormal mobility 

 and crepitation are difficult of detection, even when i^resenl, and they 

 are not always present. When there is displacement the deformity 

 which it occasions will betray the fact, and when such an injury exists 

 the surgeon will of course become vigilant in view of possible and 

 probable complications of thoracic trouble, and jirepare himself for an 

 encounter with a case of traumatic pleuritis or pneumonia. Fatal in- 

 juries of the heart are recorded. Subcutaneous emphysema is a com- 

 mon accompaniment of broken ribs, and we recall the death from this 

 cause of a patient of our own, which had suffered a fracture of two 

 ribs in the region of the withers under the cartilages of the shoulder, 

 and of which the diagnosis was only made after the fatal ending of 

 the case. 



These hurts are not often of a very serious character, though the 

 union is never as solid and complete as in other fractures, the callus 



