CRIMEAN RETROSPECTS. 
73 
the parts, for the twofold purpose of preventing any further 
protrusion of the intestine, and of keeping cold water dressings 
constantly in contact with the anus; Idiis same evening the 
animal fed well, and in a week he was able to go on duty to 
Kazatch, and towards the end of June he was embarked for 
Trebizond in splendid condition. I thought the more of this 
fortunate termination of the case, as my commanding officer 
recommended the animal to be immediately destroyed 
when he first saw him. 
FRACTURE OF THE NAVICULAR BONE. 
On the 9th July, 1856, Mr. Irvine, a gentleman on the 
commissariat staff at head quarters, sent for me to look at a 
pony which he had that day taken to Balaclava, and when 
returning up the ascent close to Mrs. Seacole’s, a heavy 
barrel happened to tumble off a cart going on before him, and 
struck the anterior part of the animal’s near fore foot. The pony 
was taken home very lame. When I examined the foot, I 
found nothing beyond a slight bruise immediately above the 
coronal process of the os pedis; an injury not nearly suffi- 
cient to account for such an amount of lameness. I sus- 
pected something very serious, but the hour being late, I 
deferred giving an opinion until the next day, and merely 
ordered a cold poultice to be applied. The result of a minute 
investigation, on the following morning, only confirmed me 
as to a grievous lesion existing within the hoof, but its seat 
could not well be decided upon. There was an intense heat 
in the foot, and the slightest movement gave rise to symp- 
toms of acute pain. 
As all our horses w T ere to be embarked next day, the head 
quarters being about to be given up to the Russians, 1 saw r 
little hope of anything being done for my patient, and there- 
fore I had him immediately destroyed. 
On examination after death, I found the navicular bone 
fractured into three large, and about half a dozen small 
pieces. With the exception of the inflammation set up in the 
bursal sacs, since the occurrence of the accident, no other 
lesion was perceptible ; the articulation between the second 
and third phalanges being perfectly healthy, and even the 
coronary substance and perforans tendon — parts which we 
might have supposed implicated — at least, they exhibited 
little to account for such a serious solution of continuity 
having taken place in their immediate neighbourhood. 
There is something peculiar in the production of a com- 
minuted fracture of the navicular bone, resting as it does 
on such elastic materials as the perforans tendon and elastic 
