y applying an effective leather splint, so that pain may be
diminished. To combat inflammation, a suitable cataplasm may be applied
directly to the skin, the extremity bandaged, and the temporary
immobilizing appliance may be secured over all. In this manner one may
make repeated examinations of the subject, and if slings are used and
every other necessary precaution taken to promote comfort for the
subject, no harm will result in delaying for several days the
application of permanent immobilization--bandages and splints or casts.
In fact, where much swelling exists at the time one is called to treat
such cases, it is advisable to delay the application of a permanent
dressing or cast until inflammation has somewhat subsided.

Course and Prognosis.--Where conditions are favorable, the nature of
the fracture one that will yield to treatment, the subject not aged, and
facilities for giving good attention to the affected animal are ample,
fractures of the first and second phalanges recover completely in from
six weeks to four months. Only simple fractures are considered curable
from a practical and economical point of view, excepting in foals, where
compound, and even comminuted, fractures may be so handled that animals
may eventually become serviceable though blemished.

Age retards the process of osseous regeneration, but in one instance at
the Kansas City Veterinary College, a very aged mare suffering from a
multiple fracture of the first phalanx was treated and at the end of
sixty days was able to walk into an ambulance. Large exostoses had
developed and the subject remained lame, but union of the broken bone
took place in a surprisingly prompt and effective manner, when age of
the subject and nature of the fracture are considered.

As a rule, one is loath to recommend treatment, even in a simple
transverse fracture of the first phalanx, in animals ten years of age or
older. The conditions which exist in any given locality that regulate
the expense of caring for an animal during the period of treatment,
especially influence the course to be pursued in treating fractures.

Treatment.--For permanent immobilization of the phalanges in fracture,
materials which might adapt themselves to the irregular contour of the
member and at the same time contribute sufficient rigidity to the parts
without doing injury to the soft structures, would constitute ideal
means of treatment; but no such materials have yet been devised, and