186 NEUROTOMY. 



honour; which he did in March 1819, in a letter " To the Editor 

 of the Calcutta Journal," as follows : — 



" Sir, — With reference to your paper of the 23d inst., noticing 

 as discovered by Mr. Sewell, within about the last eighteen 

 months, a cure for a lameness in horses, commonly called ' cofhn- 

 joint lameness,' I beg to observe, that the mode of treatment 

 alluded to, so far from being a discovery of the last eighteen 

 months, was practised by me about eighteen years ago /" 



" Finding that diminished supply of blood (by tying both the 

 inner and outer artery of the fetlock) did not counteract the mis- 

 chievous effects of pressure on the inflamed tendon, I turned my 

 thoughts towards subduing its increased sensibility by diminishing 

 the proportion of nerve naturally distributed on the foot. On this 

 principle I raised the outer nerve of the fetlock joint out of its bed 

 with a bent probe, and cut it across with a pair of scissors. This 

 v/as done in several instances, and always with immediate and 

 decided lessening of lameness ; frequently, indeed, the animal when 

 he rose from the bed appearing perfectly sound. But the result 

 was not uniformly and permanently successful, relapse of lameness 

 occasionally taking place after a period of soundness for some 

 weeks, and as often at grass as at work."' — In an operation of the 

 kind Mr. Moorcroft performed on a horse, the property of Lord 

 G. H. Cavendish, in a struggle the animal made at the moment 

 the nerve was divided, it broke its back. At first, Mr. Moorcroft 

 confined himself to the division of one (the outer) plantar nerve : 

 afterwards, however, he bethought himself, that, " if it should 

 happen that the division of both nerves should completely remove 

 the pain, and exercise restore the original facility and latitude of 

 motion to the joint, and that by degrees the sensibility should be 

 reproduced, so far as might be necessary for the complete per- 

 formance of all the functions of the foot and limb, a new and rich 

 field would be opened to physiological research. It was resolved, 

 therefore, to divide both nerves, in a case of relapse of great lame- 

 ness in a mare. The animal on rising from the bed trotted boldly 

 and without lameness, but now and then stumbled with the foot 

 operated on. The wound healed in a few days, and the mare was 

 put to grass." She progressed favourably for some weeks, but 



