NEUROTOMY. 199 



rinary art. It has hitherto stood the test of this capricious age, 

 and weathered out the storm of discordant opinion; it has ranked 

 high in the estimation of its enthusiastic admirers ; it has fallen 

 into discredit and comparative dread with those who have misap- 

 plied it; it has now but to rise to a certain point in the scale of 

 veterinary surgery, where it will remain despite of all future 

 controversy." 



The Election of the Subject for Neurotomy it is upon 

 which mainly depends the success of the operation. The operation 

 itself is simple and easy of performance ; but, however well per- 

 formed, cannot avail in a subject unhappily chosen for it, or devoted 

 to it at an improper time. It is therefore a duty the operator owes 

 to himself, as well as to his employer, to ascertain the fitness in 

 all respects of the animal brought to him for operation ; nor should 

 he suffer himself to be prevailed upon to undertake it unless in 

 his own mind this fitness both of subject and disease be clearly 

 made out. It is the swerving from this plain rule of direction which 

 has too often brought both operation and operator into disrepute. 



The incurably lame Horse is the especial subject for neu- 

 rotomy, and, above all other descriptions of lameness, that arising 

 from chronic and permanent and irremediable navicularthritic dis- 

 ease is that which holds out the best promise of success from the 

 performance of such an operation. But a horse may be lame from 

 this cause in one foot, or in both feet. So long as lameness is confined 

 to one foot, though that lameness be severe and unrelievable, still 

 may the animal be able to perform a certain amount or kind of work; 

 and whether it be advisable or not to neurotomize such a horse — • 

 supposing he be fitted in other respects for the operation — is a 

 question that will best be determined by consulting with his master 

 as to the amount or kind of work he is still able to undergo, and 

 the pain he appears to suffer in undergoing it, or in the stable after 

 his work is done. A humane master will feel for the pain his ser- 

 vant experiences, not only at work but while he is at rest ; nor will 

 he hesitate to submit his horse, under such circumstances, to neuro- 

 tomy, although the division of the nerve be, for a moment — but only 

 for a moment — -exquisitely more painful than the lameness itself. 



With a horse, however, lame from the consequences of navicu- 



