412 FRACTURES. 



would readily bend to the shape of the knee, find they were tied round the 

 joint, reaching about nine inches above and six below the knee, the ends of 

 them being tied round with tow. 



A fortnight afterwards he became very troublesome, knocking his foot on the 

 ground, and when, at the expiration of the sixth week, he was taken from the 

 slings, there was a considerable bony deposit above the knee. This, however, 

 gradually subsided as the horse regained his strength, and, with the exception 

 of turning the leg a little outwards, he is as useful as ever for common purposes*." 



Fracture op the elbow. — This is far more exposed to danger than the 

 two last bones, and is oftener fractured. The fracture is generally an oblique- 

 one, and about two-thirds from the summit of the limb. It is immediately 

 detected by the altered action, and different appearance of the limb. It is 

 not so difficult of reduction as either the humerus or the scapula, when the 

 fracture is towards the middle of the bone. A great quantity of tow saturated 

 with pitch must be placed around the elbow, and confined with firm adhesive 

 plasters, the ground being hollowed away in the front of the injured leg, so 

 that no pressure shall be made by that foot. 



Fracture op the femur. — Considering the masses of muscle that sur- 

 round this bone, and the immense weight which it supports, it would naturally 

 be deemed impossible to reduce a real fracture of the femur. If the divided 

 bones are ever united, it is a consequence of the simple repose of the parts, and 

 their tendency to unite. Professor Dick, however, relates a very singular and 

 interesting account of the cure of fracture of the femur. He was requested to 

 attend a bay mare that had met with an accident in leaping a sunken fence. He 

 found a wound in the stifle of the hind leg running transversely across the 

 anterior of the articulation, about an inch and a half in length, and in it was a 

 portion of bone that had been fractured, and that had escaped from its situation 

 towards the inside of the stifle, where it was held by a portion of ligament. 

 The isolated nature of the fractured portion, the difficulty, or rather impossibility 

 of replacing it in its situation, and the few vessels which the connecting medium 

 possessed, rendered it impossible that union would be effected ; he therefore 

 determined to remove it. 



Having enlarged the wound, and divided the portion of capsular ligament 

 which retained it in its place, he extracted the bone, and found it to be the 

 upper part of the inner anterior condyle of the femur, measuring three inches 

 in length, one inch and a half in breadth, and about an inch in thickness, 

 and being in shape nearly similar to the longitudinal section of a hen's egg. 



After the removal of the bone the animal seemed very much relieved ; the 

 wound was firmly sewed up, adhesive strapping applied over it, and the part 

 kept wet with cold water. 



Two days afterwards considerable swelling had taken place ; she seemed to 

 suffer much, and there was some oozing from the wound. Fomentations were 

 again applied, and she was slung. 



She now began rapidly to improve, and, although one of the largest articula- 

 tions in the body had been laid open and a part of the articular portion of the 

 bone removed, the wound healed so rapidly that in three weeks she walked 

 with little lameness to a loose box. At the expiration of another three weeks 

 the Professor again visited her. On being led out she trotted several times 

 along the stable yard, apparently sound, with the exception of moving the limb 

 in a slight degree wider than usual, and so completely was the part recovered 

 that, had it not been for a small scar that remained, a stranger could not have 

 known that such an accident had taken placet 



* Veterinarian, vol. iv. p. 422. f Veterinarian, vol. ii. T . 140. 



