266 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
The diagnosis is sometimes difficult. Recent complete rupture is 
generally recognized by the swelling, the great abnormal sensibility of the 
region and the functional disturbances, which vary according to the muscles 
affected. Old, it is characterized by the presence of a notch or depres- 
sion, or of two rounded stumps, with functional troubles. ‘In young sub- 
jects and race-horses partial muscular ruptures are often the cause of tem- 
porary lameness and of irregularity of function whose diagnosis is dif- 
ficult, and whose nature ordinarily remains undiscovered. Often the 
lameness has nothing peculiar and the local symptoms are little marked. 
Partial muscular ruptures are repaired rapidly under the single in- 
fluence of rest, and generally leave no locomotory trouble. In complete 
rupture sometimes a long fibrous piece or the separated cicatrization of 
both stumps interfere with the function of the muscle. 
Even in the cases where positive diagnosis is made the therapeutics 
of muscular ruptures is poor. Absolute rest is imposed. In some cases 
unremovable apparatus may be used to bring the extremities of the 
muscles close together. If there is much pain, as in some cases, sooth- 
ing preparations or frequent warm lotions should be applied. At the be- 
ginning the preparations which are generally recommended are of little 
advantage ; later, when the cicatrization is partly made, stimulating fric- 
tions, massage, douches, vesicative agents, cauterizations and irritating in- 
jections are useful. If the hemorrhagic center suppurates, free incisions 
and frequent antiseptic irrigations are required. In acase reported by 
Anacker the rupture of the great psoas was followed by an abscess that 
opened in the abdomen and ended fatally. The suture of the muscular 
ends made aseptically and completed with a wadded dressing has been 
suggested, but in our animals in the ordinary conditions of practice it de- 
mands too much care and too many minutia. 
Til. 
HERNIAS—LUXATIONS. 
Muscular hernias, characterized by the protrusion of a greater or smaller 
portion of a muscle through a laceration of its investing aponeurosis, 
are little observed in animals. They have been seen only on the extremi- 
ties, where they may occur through a solution of continuity in the fibrous 
sheaths which hold the fleshy parts close to the bones. 
They are manifested by a varying enlargement of its size and shape, 
without heat or pain, and which increases in hardness with the contraction 
of the protruding organ. As in all similar accidents, the hernial part 
may become strangulated if the aponeurotic orifice is of very small size. 
Great pain and intense lameness indicate this complication. For simple 
