The _tendo calcaneus_ (Achillis) is comparatively easily ruptured, and
the symptoms are sometimes so slight that the nature of the injury may
be overlooked. The limb should be put up with the knee flexed and the
toes pointed. This may be effected by attaching one end of an elastic
band to the heel of a slipper, and securing the other to the lower third
of the thigh. If this is not sufficient to bring the ends into
apposition they should be approximated by an open operation.

The _plantaris_ is not infrequently ruptured from trivial causes, such
as a sudden movement in boxing, tennis, or hockey. A sharp stinging pain
like the stroke of a whip is felt in the calf; there is marked
tenderness at the seat of rupture, and the patient is unable to raise
the heel without pain. The injury is of little importance, and if the
patient does not raise the heel from the ground in walking, it is
recovered from in a couple of weeks or so, without it being necessary to
lay him up.

#Hernia of Muscle.#--This is a rare condition, in which, owing to the
fascia covering a muscle becoming stretched or torn, the muscular
substance is protruded through the rent. It has been observed chiefly in
the adductor longus. An oval swelling forms in the upper part of the
thigh, is soft and prominent when the muscle is relaxed, less prominent
when it is passively extended, and disappears when the muscle is thrown
into contraction. It is liable to be mistaken, according to its
situation, for a tumour, a cyst, a pouched vein, or a femoral or
obturator hernia. Treatment is only called for when it is causing
inconvenience, the muscle being exposed by a suitable incision, the
herniated portion excised, and the rent in the sheath closed by sutures.

#Dislocation of Tendons.#--Tendons which run in grooves may be displaced
as a result of rupture of the confining sheath. This injury is met with
chiefly in the tendons at the ankle and in the long tendon of the
biceps.

Dislocation of the _peronei tendons_ may occur, for example, from a
violent twist of the foot. There is severe pain and considerable
swelling on the lateral aspect of the ankle; the peroneus longus by
itself, or together with the brevis, can be felt on the lateral aspect
or in front of the lateral malleolus; the patient is unable to move the
foot. By a little manipulation the tendons are replaced in their
grooves, and are retained there by a series of strips of plaster. At the
end of three wee