ON FRACTURES. 
Bj/ Mr. Friend, of Walsall. 
Dear Sir,— It was a remark made many centuries since by 
a great personage, who was reputed the wisest man of the age 
in which he lived, that there is nothing new under the sun.’’ 
Granting this to be true in the abstract, yet there may be so 
many modifications of matter, and so many different adjustments 
of light and shade in disposing of the same objects, as to give all 
the inspiring charm of novelty in working up materials which 
have again and again been made use of; and there is such an infi- 
nite variety in the human mind, that it is quite possible that 
what has failed to strike the imagination, or to lay hold on 
the judgment when displayed in all the glowing tints which the 
hand of a master is capable of, may yet make a desirable im¬ 
pression from the attempt of an inferior artist. 
Applying this principle to The Veterinarian, though it is 
morally impossible that every monthly publication of it can con¬ 
tain absolutely new matter, yet I sincerely hope that it will 
continue to be supported by sufficient numbers to give it all the 
charm and freshness of variety, and by as much talent as will 
make it the living and faithful picture of the progress of the noble 
profession to which we are attached. 
I find it necessary to offer this apology, and I hope that you 
will not consider that any other is requisite, to introduce the few 
rambling remarks which I herewith transmit to you. 
In the early part of my practice, I have frequently been puz¬ 
zled to account for sudden fractures in the limbs of horses, under 
circumstances which did not seem of- themselves sufficient to 
produce them. For instance, I have known many horses, whilst 
running in coaches on good roads, to fail, all at once, with a 
broken bone, though there was nothing more to account for it 
at that particular spot than at any other part of the road over 
which they had previously travelled. A near relation of my own 
once lost a very valuable cart horse, who caught his hind toe 
against a small stone partly embedded in the road, and pro¬ 
duced compound fracture of the tibia. This was, at that time, per¬ 
fectly unaccountable to him and me too. 1 have noticed, that a 
great many of these sudden fractures have been of the tibia, one 
of the worst protected bones in the body of the horse, if we take 
into consideration that, besides being so barely covered (in parts 
especially) by muscle, it is just such a distance from the ground 
as to receive the full force of a kick from a horse who may be 
good enough to favour his neighbour with one. 
