NEUROTOMY. 201 



my mind are, 1st, An inflammatory condition ol" foot. And, 2dly, 

 as aciUe ulceration does not exist without inflammation, causing 

 extreme soreness of tread, there is, with the excessive lameness 

 present, a shrinking from, a sort of dread of, throwing the weight 

 of the body upon the fore feet, and this is accompanied by the 

 expression of great pain in the stable. In such a case as this, 

 means should be used to disperse the inflammation, and absolute 

 rest should be strictly enjoined, with the view of, if possible, in 

 the absence of motion of the joint, inducing granulative action in 

 the exulcerated parts. Nor should any operation be undertaken 

 until the hoofs had become cool, and the soreness of tread had 

 greatly abated. 



The Horse lame from the Effects of Laminitis, whose 

 soles are so sunk that they give evidence of depression of the 

 coffin bone, is not a fit subject for neurotomy. With (fore) feet in 

 the condition his are, we may work some good by pressure upon 

 the soles to the extent that the animal can bear it ; but, to deprive 

 them of sensibility, and to induce the horse to use them the same 

 as he would sound feet, would be certain destruction of them. 

 After laminitis, when the sole is sunk across its middle, just ante- 

 rior to the toe of the frog, the coffin bone is actually resting upon 

 the sole, creating the force which causes the latter to bilge ; and 

 what we are desirous of doing is, to take the weight off the sole 

 from above while we augment the force of pressure upon it from 

 below. Neurotomy would defeat this object; and besides that, 

 would force the coffin bone actually through the sole, and so prove 

 the occasion of total destruction to the orgasm of the foot. 



There is, however, a kind of laminitis which we may call chronic 

 or sub-acute, wherein the coffin bones are not at all or but little 

 displaced, and consequently the soles not sunk ; and this dis- 

 ease, from a repetition of attacks, will now and then end in pro- 

 ducing grogginess. To neurotomy in cases of this description 

 there is no objection : on the contrary, when such a subject is too 

 lame to work neurotomy is recommendable. 



In Ossification of the Cartilages, partial or complete 

 anchylosis of the coffin joint or pastern joint, when lameness there- 

 from, as it commonly is, is extreme, and such as to render the horse 



VOL. IV. D d 



