476 OBSCENE CAUSE OF FRACTURED LIMBS IN LAMBS. 
continued to appear, and the mischief remained unabated. 
Some suspicion being attached to the entire donkey, he was 
removed, we are informed, from the pasture, while at the 
same time a strict watch was kept over the flock, but still, 
in the absence of the donkey and with the exercise of the 
most scrupulous care, case after case occurred until upwards 
of seventeen lambs had given evidence of fractured limbs. 
Two of the injured animals were brought to the College 
and at once slaughtered, when on a careful examination 
being made the right humerus of one of them was found to 
be fractured in an oblique direction throughout a great por¬ 
tion of its length, and the surrounding tissues were much 
contused. The other animal also gave evidence of much 
contusion in the region of the shoulder-joint, and the sur¬ 
rounding tissues were likewise considerably infiltrated. From 
the evidence placed before us, together with the fact of the 
hone tissue being free from disease, we felt no hesitation in 
attributing the fractures to external violence applied directly 
or indirectly to the part, and suggested at the same time 
the probability of the donkey being the source of the mis¬ 
chief. This, however, seemed for the moment to be incon¬ 
sistent, inasmuch as his removal was said to have been un¬ 
attended with the immediate cessation of the evil, but the 
idea occurred to us that in the later cases fracture without 
displacement had firstly taken place, and that subsequent 
separation of the broken segments resulted, either during the 
ordinary movements of the animals, or in the act of rapidly 
descending the incline of the sea banks. Such an explana¬ 
tion received considerable support from the following letter of 
Inspector Hawtree’s, which has since been received: 
“Police Station, 
“ Rochford, Essex ; 
“ June \^th, 1872. 
" Sir, 
t( Referring to the case of breaking lambs’ shoulders at 
Foulness Island, I have forwarded a bone from Southend 
which appears to me to have been broken in the same 
manner as the one you have already received. 
cc I find, on further inquiry, that the entire donkey had 
been seen to attack one of the lambs, and I believe that the 
whole of the injuries have been caused by that animal ; and 
as to the injuries being in the shoulder, I am of opinion that 
if a lamb were to smell at a donkey’s heels, it would be more 
likely to receive a kick in the shoulder than anywhere 
else. 
u I have not heard of any similar case in the flock that 
