466 
EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
LAMENESS—FRACTURE OF FIRST RIB. 
By W. Willis, M.R.C.V.S. 
The interest evoked by the publication of an account of 
“ a case of lameness associated with broken first ribs” in The 
Record some months back, induces me to send the following 
notes. 
On the Saturday before Whitsunday my attention was 
called to an old brown harness horse. 1 was told that shortly 
before my seeing him he was being driven through Bishop- 
o-ate Street, and had reared up on seeing some paper in the 
roadway; he came down on his feet, lurched forward, and 
fell on his near side. On rising he was at once noticed to be 
very lame. , 
I found him excessively lame in the off fore leg. He stood 
with the shoulder hanging down and the elbow far below its 
normal position; the knee and lower joints were flexed. 
When compelled to move it was seen that though he could 
advance the limb fairly well he was incapable of bearing any 
weight on it. So soon as he attempted to move the opposite 
limb forward, the elbow sank markedly, and he was in dan¬ 
ger of falling. The symptoms remained practically the same 
till the following Thursday, when he was destroyed. This 
was accomplished by bleeding him to death, his head being 
tied short up to the wall the while, so as to prevent him do¬ 
ing any injury to the ribs in falling if despatched by the pole¬ 
axe—a possibility suggested by one of your correspondents. 
On making a post-mortem examination 1 found the caput 
magnum and caput medium of the triceps extensor brachii 
perfectly healthy. The caput parrum and the anconeus were 
both pale—particularly the latter, more than usually moist, 
and the fibres seemed separated up. The first rib on the right 
side was broken completely through, near the head, and the 
broken ends were in places seen quite smooth and bright by 
rubbing against each other. There was a very small amount 
of effusion around this lesion, and so far as I could discern, 
the vessels passing out of the chest to supply the limb were 
in no way interfered with. The nerves supplying the limb 
