function of locomotion, with evidences of pain and swelling at the seat
of lesion. There should then be a careful examination for evidences of a
blow or other violence sufficient to account for the fracture, though
very often a suspicion of its existence can be converted into a
certainty only by a minute history of the patient if it can be obtained
up to the moment of the occurrence of the injury. A diagnosis ought not
to be hastily pronounced, and where good ground for suspicion exists it
ought not to be rejected upon any evidence less than the best. We too
often read of serious and fatal complications following careless
conclusions in similar cases, among which we may refer to one instance
of a complete fracture manifesting itself in an animal during the act of
rising in his stall after a decision had been pronounced that he had no
fracture at all.

Fractures are of course liable to complications, especially those which
are of a traumatic character, such as extensive lacerations, tearing of
tissues, punctures, contusions, etc. Unless these are in communication
with the fracture itself the indication is to treat them simply as
independent lesions upon other parts of the body. A traumatic emphysema
at times causes trouble, and abscesses, more or less deep and diffused,
may follow. In some cases small, bony fragments from a comminuted
fracture, becoming loose and acting as foreign bodies, give rise to
troublesome fistulous tracts. A frequent complication is hemorrhage,
which often becomes of serious consequence. A fracture in close
proximity to a joint may be accompanied with dangerous inflammations of
important organs, and induce an attack of pneumonia, pleurisy,
arthritis, etc., especially if near the chest; it may also cause
luxations, or dislocations. Gangrene, as a consequence of contusions or
of hemorrhage or of an impediment to the circulation, caused by
unskillfully applied apparatus, must not be overlooked among the
occasional incidents; nor must lockjaw, which is not an uncommon
occurrence. Even founder, or laminitis, has been met with as the result
of forced and long-continued immobility of the feet in the standing
posture, as one of the involvements of unavoidably protracted treatment.

When a simple fracture has been properly treated and the broken ends of
the bone have been securely held in coaptation, one of two things will
occur. Either--and this is the more common event--there will be a union
of the t