action which sometimes interposes
a difficulty may be easily overcome by subjecting the patient to general
anesthesia, and need not, therefore, cause any loss of time. A tendency
to this may also be overcome by the use of sedatives and antiphlogistic
remedies.

The reduction of the fracture having been accomplished, the problem
which follows is that of retention. The parts which have been restored
to their natural position must be kept there, without disturbance or
agitation, until the perfect formation of a callus, and it is here that
ample latitude exists for the exercise of ingenuity and skill by the
surgeon in the contrivance of the necessary apparatus. One of the most
important of the conditions which are available by the surgeon in
treating human patients is denied to the veterinarian in the management
of those which belong to the animal tribes. This is position. The
intelligence of the human patient cooperates with the instructions of
the surgeon, in the case of the animal sufferer there is a continual
antagonism between the parties, and the forced extension and fatiguing
position which must for a considerable period be maintained as a
condition of restoration require special and effective appliances to
insure successful results. To obtain complete immobility is scarcely
possible, and the surgeon must be content to reach a point as near as
possible to that which is unattainable. For this reason, as will
subsequently be seen, the use of slings and the restraint of patients in
very narrow stalls is much to be preferred to the practice sometimes
recommended of allowing entire freedom of motion by turning them loose
in box stalls. Temporary and movable apparatus are not usually of
difficult use in veterinary practice, but the restlessness of the
patients and their unwillingness to submit quietly to the changing of
the dressings render it obligatory to have recourse to permanent and
immovable bandages, which should be retained without disturbance until
the process of consolidation is complete.

The materials composing the retaining apparatus consist of oakum,
bandages, and splints, with an agglutinating compound which forms a
species of cement by which the different constituents are blended into a
consistent mass to be spread upon the surface covering the locality of
the fracture. Its components are black pitch, rosin, and Venice
turpentine, blended by heat. The dressing may be applied directly to
the skin, or a cov