CONDITION OF HUNTERS RESUMED 293 



long time in drying after having been wetted with water. 

 I also require a large grasp of fiat, ropy sinews, not 

 caring so much about the main size of the bone, as 

 the material of the adjacent parts. 



NEURECTOMY OR UNNERVING 



This operation is performed for the purpose of 

 prolonging the working power of a horse when it has 

 become lame through some disease of the limb, such 

 lameness not being removable by other means. It is 

 chiefly amongst the poorer classes of horses that the 

 operation attains its maximum vahie. 



Neurectomy does not aim at the removal of the 

 cause of the lameness, but simply destroys sensation 

 below the seat of operation. 



The forms of neurectomy practised are, viz. median 

 and plantar. In both operations about half an inch 

 of nerve is cut out. Median neurectomy is perfomed 

 upon the iimer side of the fore-arm, practically on a 

 level with the elbow. 



The lower operation is carried out at the back of 

 the leg, just above the fetlock joint, and its chief use 

 is to destroy the pain arising from disease in connec- 

 tion with the navicular bone (navicular-thritis) , more 

 rarely sidebone. Median neurectomy is chiefly re- 

 sorted to for obscure lameness believed to arise below 

 the seat of operation. Of the two operations it is, 

 probably, the most useful. 



When purchasing a hunter care must be exercised 

 to avoid being taken in with one that has been " un- 

 done " or unnerved. Loss of sensation — tested by 



