AMERICAN VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
513 
fracture of the acetabulum, dislocation, shortening 
OF THE LIMB. 
BY THE SAME. 
A black pony;, used for saddle purposes, while being clipped 
-December 2, reared up from some cause and fell backwards upon 
the near side, and when he got up was found to be very lame in 
the near hind leg. Rectal examination and manipulation of the 
limb gave distinct crepitus over the cotyloid cavity, the external 
angle of the ilium having dropped about two inches. The owner 
being appiised of the nature of the case and advised to destroy 
him, insisted upon treatment for personal reasons. 
Being placed into slings, the subsequent history of the case is 
devoid of interest, excepting that in about a week afterward the 
l eg from the hock to the body became enormously oedematous, 
the sheath and scrotum also becoming involved and inducing a 
stubborn paraphymosis; both conditions, however, yielded ^to 
warm fomentations, suspensory bandage and liberal scarification. 
The limb gradually became shortened, the coxo-femoral artic¬ 
ulation very prominent and the gluteal muscles rapidly atrophic. 
When taken out of slings after about six weeks rest, he was found 
to move with a peculiar straddling gait and with considerable dif¬ 
ficulty, the hip joint being very limited in its action. Rectal ex¬ 
amination revealed a calus of considerable size over the joint and 
running towards the floor of the pelvis. 
# ^ ie P ost mor tem lesions were very interesting, the fracture 
being located at the middle of the caxal bone, the acetabulum be¬ 
ing broken into four pieces of various sizes, the neck of the 
ilium had dropped down, and a sharp edge of the bone resting 
upon the circumference of the head of the femur had worked a 
groove an inch and a half long and fully half an inch deep upon 
the promiscuous head. This part of the femur was displaced up¬ 
wards and the calus extended in surrounding the entire structure 
forming an irregular mass from the supro-cotyloid crest to the mid¬ 
dle of the small sciatic notch. The femur, beyond the injury to 
the head, was healthy, with the exception of a slight osseous depos 
it around the base of the head of the bone. Had the animal 
been allowed to live some time longer, a complete ankylosis 
would have taken place, with considerable shortening of the leg. 
