404 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



Fracture of the Os Innominatum may be througli tlie 

 acetabulum, when, if the animal is at all in condition, it 

 should he killed for the butcher. The same rule applies 

 to fractures of the more serious kind involving joints, or 

 penetrating cavities in any part of the body. Animals 

 rushing through doors, over landing stages, or through 

 gates which shut on them, are liable to fracture of the 

 antero-inferior spinous process of the ilium ; this never 

 unites, but a false joint forms, and the animal remains 

 permanently deformed, ^^ ragged '' or '' hipped,^' as it is 

 termed. 



Fractures of the Bihs may lead to passage of the frag- 

 ments inwards and laceration of the lung or to pleurisy. 



Fractures of the Granium are seldom seen in cattle, and 

 not likely to compress the brain, for the plates of bone of 

 the cranium are separated almost everywhere by the 

 frontal sinuses, so that the outer gives way without the 

 inner. 



Fractures of young animals unite more readily than 

 those of the adult ; in them we occasionally see cases 

 of partial fracture, fracture with bending, or greenstich 

 fracture, and apparent fracture may be due simply to 

 separation of epiphyses, especially those of the olecranon 

 and of the summit of the process of os calcis. In such 

 cases there is flexure of the limb at the hock or the 

 elbow, generally a hard tumour above the joints of these 

 parts, and a thickened condition of the muscles higher 

 up. In such cases the limbs must be forcibly kept 

 straightened for a considerable time, and an attempt must 

 be made to bring the separated parts in apposition, and 

 maintain them there. Such cases are troublesome. 



As in other lower animals, the difficulty in treatment 

 of fractures in the ox consists in our inability to keep the 

 patient quite quiet and at rest. Again, we cannot satis- 

 factorily use slings for him as we would for the horse 

 for they too much compress the abdominal viscera and 

 interfere with digestion. Still, we do not require 

 such accurate and perfect union in the ox as in the 



