VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXIX, 
No. 345. 
SEPTEMBER, 1856. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 21. 
Communications and Cases. 
CLINICAL LECTURE ON DISLOCATION OF THE 
FEMUR. 
By John Gamgee, 
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, and 
Clinical Lecturer in the Edinburgh Veterinary College. 
From Notes by Mr. William Allen Field, Student. 
The dislocations of joints are more rarely witnessed, and 
less easy to reduce, in the larger domestic quadrupeds than in 
man or the smaller animals. Many reasons are to be assigned 
for this. 1st. Where movement is most extensive there is 
the greatest tendency to displacement of the articular surfaces. 
2dly. In the beast of burthen the conformation of his body 
adapts him for sudden and extraordinary muscular efforts. 
This adaptation depends on the character of the joints of 
both limbs and trunk, as well as on the relative length 
and bulk of bones, and distribution of muscles. Free- 
dom of motion is in various ways sacrificed to ensure 
firmness and solidity, and if once the firm and solid bonds of 
union suffer, they are with difficulty restored to their natural 
state. 3dly. In comparing man, in this respect, with the horse 
or cattle, we find that animals do not strive to do impossible 
things ; they have no spontaneous inclination for the execu- 
tion of feats, and though they often have occasion to manifest 
strength and activity, it is in ways natural to them that these 
are displayed. 
Accidents will and do occur, so that even in the firmly 
built quadruped there is scarcely a single joint that may not 
be displaced, though at the expense of ligamentous ruptures, 
and fractures of bone. Dislocations are almost invariably 
xxix. 64 
