568 
DISLOCATION OF THE FEMUR. 
the first mishap, and again reducing the dislocation, by 
appropriate means restored her to a sound condition, and 
besides retaining her five years in his own possession, though 
she changed hands several times afterwards, he saw her alive 
and pregnant in the autumn of 1853. The cow was in calf 
at the time of the accident, and twenty-five days after 
Bossetto had purchased her she was delivered of a healthy 
calf. 
The second case was a most striking one of dislocation of 
both hip-joints, in a cow that met with the accident somehow 
while grazing. It occurred in the autumn of 1839* Both 
luxations were reduced in the field, and the animal, with diffi- 
culty got on her legs again, was made to walk to a stream of 
water, and the joints were bathed for more than half an hour. 
Other accessory remedies were used, and the cow was speedily 
restored to health. 
The third instance occurred in a bullock, in the month of 
May, 1843. The right hip-joint was displaced. It had been 
falsely diagnosed by an empiric, but Bossetto with difficulty 
reduced it, and the animal rose from the recumbent posture, 
gave evidence of a keen appetite, and in forty days from the 
accident was perfectly recovered, and could again bear the 
yoke. 
The fourth case was one in which Bossetto had diagnosed 
complete rupture of the round ligament, and he would not 
undertake the treatment. The cow was eventually destroyed. 
The fifth was also in a cow, but the hip-joint dislocation 
was associated with fracture of the pubis, so that Bossetto 
condemned the animal to be slaughtered. Two other cases 
of the same kind are alluded to, and Bossetto concludes his 
memoir with some practical inferences especially bearing on 
the curability of such lesions, on the simplicity of manage- 
ment or after treatment of the case, and on the inutility of 
using slings to support the patients, or plaisters and charges 
over the affected joints. 
Of the many opinions that I obtained from professors on 
the continent, none were more to the point on hip-joint dis- 
locations than those of Dr. Gotti, of Bologna, and Professor 
Maffei, of Ferrara. These gentlemen combine immense ex- 
perience with sound judgment, and their evidence bears 
strongly in favour of attempting reduction at all times when 
the femur is displaced without very extensive complication. 
In conclusion, gentlemen, I beg you to reflect how essential 
it is to acquire a complete knowledge of the nature of inju- 
ries, so that when called upon to treat them, you may at all 
times have that confidence in yourself which you must in- 
