218 • OPEEATIONS ON BONES. 



more or less deep and diffused, may follow. In some cases small 

 bony fragments from a comminuted fracture, becoming loose and 

 acting as foreign bodies, may give rise to troublesome fistulous 

 tracts. A frequent complication is hemorrhage, which often be- 

 comes of serious consequence. A fracture in close proximity to a 

 joint may be accompanied by dangerous inflammations of im- 

 portant organs, and may induce an attack of pneumonia, pleurisy, 

 arthritis, etc., as well as luxations or dislocations, and the more 

 so if situated near the chest. Gangrene, as a consequence of 

 contusions or of hemorrhage or of an impediment to the circida^ 

 tion, caused by unski 11 fully applied apparatus, must not be over- 

 looked among the occasional incidents ; nor must lockjaw, which 

 is not an uncommon occurrence. Even laminitis has been met 

 with as the result of forced and long-continued immobility of the 

 feet ia the standing posture, as one of the involvements of una- 

 voidably protracted treatment. 



When a simple fracture has been properly treated, and the 

 broken ends of the bone have been securely held in coaptation, one 

 of two things will occur. Either — and this is the more common 

 event — there wiU be a union of the two ends by a solid cicatrix, 

 the callus, or the ends will continue separated or become only 

 partially united by an intermediate fibrous structure. In the 

 first instance the fracture is consolidated, or united, in the second 

 there is a false articulation, or pseudo-arthrosis. 



The time required for a firm union or true consoUdation of a 

 fracture wiU vary with the character of the bone affected, the age 

 and constitution of the patient, and the general condition of the 

 case. The union will be perfected earlier ia a young than in an 

 adult animal, and sooner in the latter than in the aged, and a 

 general healthy condition is of course, in every respect, an 

 advantage. 



The mode of cicatrization, or method of repair in lesions of 

 the bones, has been a subject of much study among investigators 

 in pathology, and has ehcited various expressions of opinion from 

 those high in authority. But the weight of evidence and pre- 

 ponderance of opinion are about settled in favor of the theory 

 that the law of reparation is the same for both the hard and the 

 soft tissues. In one case a simple exudation of material, with the 

 proper organization of newly formed tissue, will bring about a 

 union by the first intention, and in another the work will be ac- 



