G14 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
-.one must count with the rarefaction, the fragility of the injured organ. - 
Long rest and sometimes the use of slings are indispensable to prevent 
‘consecutive fractures. 
III. 
FRACTURES. 
Solutions of continuity of bones have extremely varying characters, 
-which have permitted numerous divisions of their lesions. From the thera- 
peutic point of view, it is specially important to recognize: 1st, ¢ncomplete 
_ fractures, in which only a part of the thickness of the bone is involved, 
and complete fractures, in which the dieresis is complete; 2d, close frac- 
tures without solutions of continuity of the soft tissues surrounding the 
traumatic center; and 3d, open fractures, with wound, exposing this center 
to infectious complications. 
A.—INCOMPLETE FRACTURES. 
Among incomplete fractures are counted: flexures, or bendings, partiat 
Sractures, fissures and interpertosteal fractures. In bendings, specially fre- 
- quent in young animals, there is either no solution of continuity of the 
bone, or it is injured in part of its continuity, “as happens in green 
‘-wood, which on being bent breaks only on the convexity of the bend- 
ing, and remains continued in the concavity, where stretching of the 
fibres has been less” (Bouley). fartial fractures or with sphniers 
-are characterized by the separation, from the body of the bone, of a 
‘piece more or less voluminous. To this are added the driving-in, the 
furrows or perforation made by projectiles. Most generally incomplete 
fractures are constituted by transversal, longitudinal or oblique jissures. 
The tibia, radius, metacarpus are, on account of their being subcutaneous, 
‘the most frequently injured. Whenever a violent traumatism has been 
..applied upon a subcutaneous bony surface, a split must always be feared 
. and treated as if it existed. The swelling of the region and the excessive 
lameness imply always serious lesions, exposing to complete fracture. As 
-we have said, with rare exceptions, it is not in the first days that it takes 
‘place; the pain prevents the animal from resting on his leg or making 
any efforts; and the bone has not yet undergone the changes resulting: 
from its inflammation. The fracture occurs most generally after several 
‘weeks or in the course of the second month following the accident. 
In a case related by Bouley, the tibia broke two months after the injury. 
In a horse treated by us for a contused wound of the internal face of the 
“Jeg, returned to his work a month after the accident, the tibia broke five days 
ater, while the animal was working. Another subject, a stallion, received 
