32 
FRACTURE OF THE ACETABULUM. 
describing with it, in dragging it after her, a sort of segment of a 
circle. The position and motion of the limb were altogether dif- 
ferent from that occasioned by dislocation of the patella. 
Placing my left hand upon the tuberosity of the ischium, and 
with my right grasping the stifle, I found I could with the latter 
move the femur inward and outward, when the muscles were not 
in action, with ease ; there was evidently a sensation of looseness, 
or mobility rather, of the bone, such as fracture would impart to 
it ; and, while I was giving the bone these lateral movements, I 
more than once thought I could perceive a crepitus. I next had 
the limb lifted and brought forward by an assistant, in the manner 
in which a farrier does to clinch up the nails of the hind shoe ; and 
while thus held, suddenly let fall upon the ground. This repeated 
more than once produced sounds like crepitus. Afterwards I had 
the limb lifted and carried as much as possible backwards, and then, 
as before, let suddenly drop : this, more than any thing that had 
been done before, elicited crepitus; in fact, there no longer existed 
any doubt about the existence of a fracture, and the case was pro- 
nounced to be “fracture of the femur;” and the mare, in conse- 
quence of commencing to express a great deal of pain by heaving 
at the flanks, anxious countenance, sweating, trembling, &c., was 
recommended, without any further delay, to be shot. 
Post-mortem . — The acetabulum, from the blow received upon 
the round bone, had, it was discovered, been broken into four 
pieces, — three large and one small. Its upper portion, constituting 
more than a third, remained unbroken off the pelvis; the lateral 
portions, about equal in size, and neither amounting quite to a 
third, were both loose ; the inferior portion was inconsiderable, 
and altogether detached. The fracture had proceeded in a radiated 
direction, apparently from the central part of the cup, or rather 
from the hollow into which the ligamentum teres is implanted, to 
different points in the circumferent border. The fractured parts, 
though retracted at a distance from each other, maintained their 
relative situations; and the ligamentum teres, which remained 
whole, still held the femur attached to the unbroken-off portion of 
the acetabulum. There were found besides two large and several 
small pieces of fractured ischium. The blood extravasated from the 
ruptured bloodvessels around the injured parts, which was in a 
state of imperfect coagulation, did not, I should say, exceed a 
pint. 
