396 
REUNION OF FRACTURED BONES. 
and the animal taking particular care that it never touched the 
ground. After some consideration, I determined to leave it to 
nature to effect a cure, only recommending the use of fomenta- 
tions. 
She was kept confined for about two months, when she was 
allowed to run about the place, which she could do very well on 
her three sound legs. At the end of six months the leg had got 
fine, but there was considerable thickening of the pastern, similar 
to ringbone, to remove which she was fired. 
The owner kept her nine months, when he began to despair of 
her ever getting sound. I bought her for £5, for I was very 
anxious to see the result of the case. She got quite sound in 
about twelve months after the accident. At three years old I 
rode her, and continued to do so for seven years, although my 
journeys are none of the shortest, nor do I often ride at a jog- 
trot. At the expiration of that period she died of diseased lungs, 
but, during the whole of the intermediate period, she was never 
in the slightest degree lame. 
I will now give you a case or two of cattle. 
1st, A cow belonging to Mr. Peake, of Craigend, was break- 
ing a fence, when a stone was thrown at her which struck her 
above the hock, fracturing the tibia. As she was a valuable 
animal I was sent for to bandage and dress her, which I did, to 
the best of my power, with splints, tow, tar, &c., and we made 
what we considered a good job. Wishing to get her on her feet, 
we attempted to lift her up, when she became so furious at the 
restraint under which she had been placed, that she fairly knocked 
her horns off. All our labour had been in vain — the bandages 
were of no use, and the leg was dangling and flying about in every 
direction. We were compelled to cut the rope that fastened her 
to the stake, lest she should strangle herself; and the owner, in 
despair, ordered the butcher to be sent for in order to destroy her. 
I gradually slit off the bandages whenever 1 could get near 
her, and then went to the house to intercede for her life. On 
my return, after a short absence, she had got up, and had walked 
to a shed of her own accord. There she was shut up and left 
to her fate. 
Partial union between the divided bone took place in about 
six weeks, but there remained a wound on the inside of the 
thigh, from which several pieces of bone were, at different times, 
removed. Ultimately the wound closed, and she was fattened 
for the butcher in the following winter. 
2d, About twelve months ago, being at Mr. Cassar’s, Herriott 
Town, attending a horse, I saw a two-year-old ox, with fracture 
of the tibia, standing in the open court ; and in the summer fol- 
