216 



NEUROTOMY. 



used for the purpose. That a similar operation admits of being 

 introduced — nay, has been successfully practised — in veterinary 

 surgery is not to be denied. In the first place, however, it must 

 ^ ,7 be remembered that it is in those situa- 



tions only in which nerves run unaccom- 

 panied by arteries, or in which a nerve 

 runs at some interval of distance from an 

 artery, that such an operation becomes 

 practicable ; and, in the second place, it 

 must be borne in mind that nerves simply 

 cut in two, in a little time after unite again, 

 and then the lameness, of course, may be 

 expected to return ; it not being practica- 

 ble to excise any portion through such an 

 opening as a bistoury makes. So that, 

 in point of fact, unless for any time-serv- 

 ing or sinister purpose, such as the palm- 

 ing of a horse off for sale that has been 

 lame and will become lame again, as a 

 sound horse, hardly any end is answered 

 in a case of lameness by the operation of 

 simple division of a nerve. It is differ- 

 ent, however, in such a case as tetanus, 

 or in any case, in fact, in which the simple 

 requirement is the immediate abstraction 

 of pain or sensibility : the veterinary sur- 

 geon then, finding himself placed in the 

 same position as the surgeon, may, if 

 practicable, have recourse to the same 

 method of operating. 



All that admits of being done, in the 

 ordinary mode of operating, by way of 

 expediting the healing of the wound, and 

 lessening the chance of blemish, is making 

 the incision as clean as possible, and 

 directly down upon the nerve at once, so 

 as to render subsequent dissection unne- 



m 



