668 
FRACTURE OF THE TWO FIRST RIBS. 
are caused by the excessive action of the muscles ; but the 
portions of the skeleton to which this can happen are very few, 
being limited to those bones, and those prominences of bones, 
which form the more immediate points d'appui on which the mus- 
cles act : these are, in man, the patella, most frequently the seat of 
the accident, and more rarely the olecranon and the os calcis ; or, 
in their relative parts in the horse, the stifle, the point of the hock, 
and the point of the elbow. This, therefore, is a cause that will 
not in the least help us out of our difficulty, the action of the mus- 
cles on the anterior ribs being uniform and moderate. The case 
must, therefore, be considered as an unique specimen of an extra- 
ordinary accident, and an addition to the hundreds occurring around 
us, where intense and fatal mischief has taken place without a 
single adequate symptom being developed to warn us of the con- 
sequences. 
We have had the gratification of being recently informed, through 
the medium of The Veterinarian, that some noise has been 
heard about a Charter, the spirit of which it is surmised may exist, 
but the substance of which has yet to be discovered. Had not 
this emanated from a correspondent whose communications have 
been stated by the Editor to be “ practical and excellent, and doing 
him the greatest credit,” it should be treated with that silent con- 
tempt that all such silly and impertinent remarks should be, which 
attempt to depreciate or undervalue any institution the object of 
which is useful and good. As it is, the question naturally occurs, 
Are the grapes sour ] Could not a party possessing such “ steady 
and acute observation,” and “ such unflinching determination,” 
obtain the meed so justly their due f Or is it, that the man “ who 
knows what to work at, who knows how to work, and who is pos- 
sessed of the will to do it” — for such high eulogium is by implica- 
tion modestly assumed — could not condescend to recognise and ac- 
cept the boon which a gracious Sovereign had bestowed on a body 
of men progressing in knowledge and science ; and without which, 
however much they might have individually struggled, they never 
would have been recognised, collectively, as professional men or 
gentlemen ? The latter must be the reason, of course ; or, if for a 
moment a doubt could exist in our minds on so delicate a subject, 
it could only arise from the slight differences that exist in the 
routine of practice, induced by the “ great spirit of earnestness 
which characterises the true labourer in science,” ringing the 
changes from nitre, tartar emetic, and camphor, to camphor, tartar 
emetic, and nitre (vide twenty-seven out of the forty prescriptions 
given in detail); and that of the generality of the members of the 
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, who, being expected not 
