erformed,
would it be possible to keep the parts in place by any known means at
our disposal? At the best the most favorable result that could be
anticipated would be a reunion of the fragments with a considerable
shortening of the bone and a helpless, limping, crippled animal to
remind us that for human achievement there is a "thus far and no
farther."

In small animals, such as dogs and cats, however, attempts at treatment
are justifiable, and we are convinced that in many cases of difficulty
in the application of splints and bandages a patient may be placed in a
condition of undisturbed quiet and left to the processes of nature for
"treatment" as safely and with as good an assurance of a favorable
result as if he had been subjected to the most heroic secundum artem
doctoring known to science. As a case in point, mention may be made of
the case of a pregnant bitch which suffered a fracture of the upper end
of the femur by being run over by a light wagon. Her "treatment"
consisted in being tied up in a large box and let alone. In due time she
was delivered of a family of puppies, and in three weeks she was running
in the streets, limping very slightly, and nothing the worse for her
accident.

FRACTURE OF THE PATELLA.

This, fortunately, is a rare accident, and can result only from direct
violence, as a kick or other blow. The lameness which follows it is
accompanied with enormous tumefaction of the joint, pain, inability to
bear weight upon the foot, and finally disease of the articulation.
Crepitation is absent, because the hip muscles draw away the upper part
of the bone. The prognosis is unavoidably adverse, destruction being the
only termination of this incurable and very painful injury. Most of the
reported cases of cures are based upon a wrong diagnosis.

FRACTURES OF THE TIBIA.

Of all fractures these are probably more frequently encountered than any
others among the class of accidents we are considering. As with injuries
of the forearm of a like character, they may be complete or incomplete;
the former when the bone is broken in the middle or at the extremities,
and transverse, oblique, or longitudinal. The incomplete kind are more
common in this bone than in any other.

_Symptoms._--Complete fractures are easy to recognize, either with or
without displacement. The animal is very lame, and the leg is either
dragged or held clear from the ground by flexion at the stifle, while
the lower part hangs do