NEUROTOMY. 187 



happening to cut her foot severely in galloping over some glass 

 bottles, such severe injury accrued to ''the joint" (the coffin) 

 that her case became hopeless. Mr. Moorcroft winds up this 

 interesting account of neurotomy with the following very sensible 

 practical deductions : — 



" From the preceding experiments it has been shewn, that, by 

 the diminution of the quantity of blood passing to the inflamed 

 joint, the sensibiHty was not subdued, owing to adverse peculiarity 

 of structure ; that by the diminution of sensibility the repairing 

 powers of the part were not injured, as far as they depended upon 

 the action of the bloodvessels ; that by a very sudden division of 

 one nerve a fatal accident was produced ; and that by the extinc- 

 tion of sensibility, the natural guard against external injury, 

 through the division of both nerves, an accident was rendered 

 destructive, which in the usual condition of the foot might have 

 been less injurious. The unfortunate results of surgical practice, 

 candidly related, rank in utility of record next to those of oppo- 

 site termination — errors in practice guiding experience to sound 

 conclusions. 



" I recollect not the number of horses operated on by me suc- 

 cessfully, though it was somewhat considerable. Some of these 

 were worked by myself, and the general impressions on my mind 

 at this interval are, that horses so operated on, when they did not 

 again become lame, were more apt to stumble with the limb ope- 

 rated on than the other ; and that this mode of treatment was 

 likely to be more usefully applicable to coach-horses than to horses 

 intended for single harness or for the saddle*." 



These observations shut out all doubt or surmise, not only that 

 the operation of neurotomy had been practised, but practised suc- 

 cessfully by Mr. Moorcroft, before he departed for India, which 

 was in the year 1803 ; at the same time, they afford us reason 

 for believing, that the same talented and skilful veterinarian was 

 on the brink of bringing forth what has since been brought to 

 light through the experiments of Mr. Sewell, viz. the utility of 

 neurotomy as a remedy for the removal of lameness in cases where 



* The entire paper from which these extracts are made will be found in 

 The Veterinarian, vol. iii, p. 619, et seq. 



