TENOTOMY. 365 



Mr. Wells, of Wymondham, in June 1828, was consulted 

 about a horse that had been lame and useless for three years from 

 a " sprain" of the tendon of the off hind leg. He had been blis- 

 tered and fired, and blistered again, without affording relief. The 

 foot was now drawn up by the permanent contraction of the flexor 

 muscles to that extent that the front of the fetlock came down upon 

 the ground at every step, impeding action so greatly that " the 

 horse had been nine hours in coming a distance of seven miles." 

 The flexor tendon was divided midway between the hock and fet- 

 lock, and at the same time neurotomy was performed, the last being 

 deemed requisite to restore the action of the navicular joint. In 

 two months afterwards, the horse, free from pain and lameness, 

 was put to plough, where he was at work at the time this account 

 was written, which was nine months afterwards*. 



But " contracted sinews" giving rise to so much deformity that 

 the horse is thereby rendered unfit for use, may arise from natural 

 causes, independent of any work or medical treatment the animal 

 may have been subjected to. In October 1837 was purchased a 

 colt (gelding) for the First Life Guards, of a long-legged and 

 growing character, who, originally ill- formed in his fetlocks, after 

 purchase grew for several months so rapidly that his fore legs, 

 becoming weaker and weaker, at length failing to sustain the weight 

 of his body, gave way under it, becoming what is called" bowed" 

 to that degree that the knuckling over was day by day bringing the 

 fronts of the fetlocks nearer and nearer to the ground. I proposed 

 the operation of tenotomy, which was performed by myself at Wind- 

 sor in July or August — I forget which — in 1838. Within a month 

 afterwards the horse walked to London. He was kept four months 

 after this, in the course of which his legs became much less bowed, 

 and he acquired strength in standing and walking upon them. It 

 being evident, however, that there was no prospect, young as he 

 was, of his ever recovering strength sufficient to carry a life- 

 guardsman, he was cast and sold, being then but in his third year. 

 What became of him afterwards I lost all means of ascertaining. 

 In this instance we cannot call the success more than partial. I 



* This case will be found at length in the second volume of The Vetebi- 

 NARiAN, page 142. 



