68 
AMPUTATION OF THE ANTERIOR PORTION 
lower jaw was broken. Although, the mischief was perceived as 
soon as it happened, the owner of the horse still forced him to pro- 
ceed. In the evening, at the station-house, he gave him his ordinary 
ration, the whole of which he ate ; and it was not until the morn- 
ing, on his arrival at Alfort, and having worked all night, that he 
was taken into the infirmary, on the 24th of October, 1838. 
The fracture of the lower maxillary had taken place at the neck 
of that bone, between the tushes and the corner incisor teeth. It 
stretched obliquely from before backwards, and from the tushes to 
the infundibulum formed by the lower lip, so that the whole of the 
anterior part of the maxillary bone, in which the incisor teeth were 
planted, was completely detached from the other portion of the 
bone, or only held by the inferior prolongation of the buccal mem- 
brane. The surfaces of the fractured extremities exposed to view, 
posteriorly, the roots of the tushes completely bared ; and, ante- 
riorly, those of the corner teeth very much loosened in their 
sockets. The wound had a greenish black appearance, and it 
was stained by parcels of oats implanted in the interstices of the 
bone. • 
Notwithstanding the thinness of the soft parts which yet re- 
mained united, I thought that there was no reason to despair of re- 
uniting the bony surface, and I determined to attempt it. 
The horse was carefully thrown on his right side, and I com- 
menced my operation by extracting the corner tooth on the left 
side, which w r as very loose. The two surfaces were then very 
carefully cleansed of all foreign bodies which had insinuated them- 
selves between the fractured edges ; particularly every particle of 
food which he had taken was removed from the crevices of the 
fracture by means of a pair of forceps, and the w r ound was after- 
wards washed with some tincture of Peruvian bark. 
The fractured bones were then brought into contact; and, in 
order to retain them in union, I bored some holes by the aid of a 
drill between the tushes and the second incisor teeth, above and 
below T , through which I passed some pieces of brass wire, and by 
means of these I brought together the two jaws, and fixed them, as 
I hoped immovably. Then, as in spite of these measures, the efforts 
which the animal made to separate his jaws produced a rubbing 
motion between the broken surfaces, I surrounded the neck of the 
maxillary bone with a sufficient compress of tow, and applied a 
ligature around it, making my bearing-place on the tushes, which 
still remained firm on the posterior part of the fracture. By these 
means all motion between the parts was prevented. As, however, 
there was reason to fear that, in the continual efforts which he made 
to open his jaws, he would at length break the wires which kept 
them united, I applied over his head the hood contrived by M. 
