7. If the division be transverse, the diagnosis becomes then as plain and easy, as it is difficult and obscure in cases where it is longitudinal. In such a case, a considerable separation or space exists between the two fragments, sensible to the touch, when the hand is placed on the knee. In this separation, the fragments are not displaced by the same means. The superior fragment being attached to the extensors, is drawn upwards with great force by these muscles, the action of which the rotula no longer resists. The lower fragment, on the other hand, being attached only to the inferior ligament, is not moved by any muscle, and cannot be displaced in any other way than by the motions of the leg with which it is still connected. 8. Hence it follows, 1st, that, in a state of extension, the separation is the least possible, because it is then produced on the part of the superior fragment only; 2dly, that in a state of flexion it is greatest, because then both fragments concur alike in producing it; 3dly, that it may be increased or diminished by varying the degrees of flexion. 9. This fracture is further characterized by the following circumstances, namely, a practicability of moving the fragments transversely in opposite directions, and of producing, by that means, some degree of crepitation, provided they be first brought close together; by the pain which accompanies these motions; by the swelling common to every kind of fracture of the rotula, and which, if very great, may involve the other signs in more or less uncertainty; by a difficulty of standing; and an almost entire loss of the power of walking, in consequence of the extensors being no longer able to communicate motion to the leg, unless when the fracture exists very low down, near to the inferior ligament. 10. The touch will always discover in what part of the bone the fracture is situated, which, if it be oblique, will partake more or less of the characters of the longitudinal or the transverse, accordingly as it approaches to the one or the other. § IV. OF THE PROGNOSIS. 11. Many authors have pretended that fractures of the rotula cannot be cured, and it even appears that the Academy of Surgery adopted this opinion, on receiving a memoir from a Flemish physician, which contained several facts tending to establish that principle. But what do these facts prove? That in some particular cases, reunion did not take place, but they do not show that this was owing to the nature of the fracture.