SPRAINS. GIL: 
The luxation of the pubic symphysis, still rarer than the preceding, , 
has been observed only in bovines. In solipeds, where the ischio-pubic - 
symphysis ossifies rapidly, a parasymphysar fracture occurs rather - 
than the separation of the pubis and of the ischiums. Guy has related 
the case of a five-year-old mare which, annoyed by flies, slipped on the 
pavement, both hind legs in abduction. At post-mortem, with a com- . 
minuted fracture of the bones of the pelvis, there was an ischio-pubic 
luxation. At the autopsy of a cow made by Golis, the ischio-pubic - 
luxation coexisted with an ileo-sacral dislocation. This animal, like the - 
heifer observed by Prietsch, which had a simple luxation of the sym- . 
physis, was unable to get up or to stand up. 
The treatment consists in placing the animals in a quiet place, on a. 
‘thick bed, and the lumbo-sacral region covered with a plaster of black . 
pitch. Recovery takes, place in two to four weeks; but there often 
remains a deformity of the croup and a weakness of the hindquarters. 
V.—Coxo-Femoral Joint. 
For a long time, according to classical authors, the luxation of the hip-- 
joint without fracture at the head of the femur was considered as im-. 
possible. Rigot (1832) did not admit that the round ligament could be 
ruptured or stretched to permit the head of the femur to come out of the - 
cotyloid cavity. For him “the force of resistance of this ligament was. 
superior to that of cohesion of the femoral head: to such extent that . 
efforts made upon the articulation were to fracture the bones rather than 
to have the ligaments give way and permit the luxation to take- 
place.” ? In relation to this accident, Dietrichs says: “ Luxation of the 
coxo-femoral joint cannot take place in a*horse except after rupture 
of the round ligament, accompanied with excessive stretching of the 
capsular ligament. And, unless by circumstances unknown to this day, 
a fracture of the head of the femur or a part of the coxal occurs rather 
than the rupture of the round ligament.”* However, in 1840, Rigot 
in his Zraité d’ Anatomie acknowledged his error. 
Falke has related several cases of this luxation. In cadavers, he 
succeeded in producing it with a weight of 8 quintals. in one case, of 16 
in another. Each time he saw the head of the femur and the cotyloid 
cavity intact, while the round and the capsular ligaments were torn... 
At the autopsy of a mule killed because of a luxation Gourdon found 
the head of the femur intact, entirely out of its cavity; the ligament. 
ruptured on a léevel with its attachment at the bottom of the cotyloid. 
cavity, remaining adherent to the femur in all its length. At the: 
1 Zafosse : Journal dés Veter, du Midi, 1852, p. 57. 
2 Dietrichs : Lehrbuch der Chirurgie. 
