PLANTAK NEUROTOMY. 543 



operation within a period of from one to two months, but on the 

 other hand its occurrence has been deferred in other animals for 

 jears. Evidently, these varying results must be considered as 

 the effect of different and quite disconnected causes. The truth 

 is, indeed, that in the first instance it is due to a gangrenous dis- 

 organization of the tissues within the foot, and in the second, in- 

 stead of being the result of insufficient vitality, or arising from 

 lack of nutrition of the parts, it is more probably the consequence 

 of the unregulated force of the concussion when the foot strikes 

 the earth — unregulated because of the loss of the discriminating 

 instinct formerly exercised, but now lost with the missing nerve- 

 oonsciousness which once controlled all the movements of the limb. 

 It could scarcely happen that such a condition of things should 

 fail, after years of continuance, to encounter some susceptible 

 temper in which to exhibit its baleful influence. 



A reason which must not be oveiiooked in relation to the cast- 

 ing off of the hoof is the fact that in the neurotomized animal 

 the essential symptoms of the first development of any lesions 

 which might give rise to it, are missing. The first of these symp- 

 toms is the pain which is normally manifested by the lameness, 

 and for that reason it is that the care and attention required by 

 the foot of a neurotomized horse are at once so important and so 

 commonly overlooked and omitted. But without ignoring the 

 possibility of this accident, the question is presented, whether it 

 is of such common occurrence that its frequency constitutes a 

 cogent reason for abolishing the operation. 



Our answer to this, founded on the showing of the record, 

 must be given in the negative. To quote but one among many 

 authorities — Professor Nocard says that out of more than one 

 thousand operations, he has never met with that accident. For 

 ourselves, in a practice of many years, with a number of neurot- 

 omy cases which we can count by the hundreds, we also have 

 never encountered it. In the only case we have seen, other causes 

 existed in the form of suppurative corns, which were overlooked, 

 and which were, moreover, comphcated with gangrene of the vel- 

 vety and podophyllous tissues. 



The Softening of the Perforans Tendon and its subsequent 

 rupture, is also a very severe sequelae of neurotomy. This may 

 take place almost immediately after the operation, or it may be 

 postponed until after a few months, when the animal has resumed 



