THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 247 



in restoring a part to soundness that was in a state of caries. 

 As a palliative, we can with confidence recommend it, having 

 witnessed good effects follow its use. 



If the animal be not restored to usefulness under this treatment, 

 let him run to grass, if the season permits, having tips nailed on 

 the feet to guard against fracture of the hoof; and, after the 

 lapse of a few weeks, if he still be found lame, as a last resort, 

 neurotomy may be tried. See Neurotomy. 



OPERATION FOR NEUROTOMY. — {Nerving.) 



Neurotomy consists in a division or excision of a portion of 

 nervous fibre. The operation has, to some extent, received the 

 cold shoulder from very many horsemen in this country, whose 

 horses, after being operated on, have actually walked off, leaving 

 their hoofs behind them. We feel safe to say, however, that this 

 unfortunate occurrence may have been the fault of those who a 

 few years ago went about from one place to another, operating 

 without the requisite skill necessary for the ultimate success of the 

 object, and destitute of that knowledge necessary in the selection 

 of suitable subjects for the operation. This is evidently the case ; 

 for some of the animals thus operated on were the subjects of 

 acute laminitis — a form of disease that no regular veterinarian 

 would ever think of relieving by neurotomy ; so that many who 

 now decry neurotomy have had but a partial opportunity of 

 judging of its merits. If a man lacking the requisite skill under- 

 takes to amputate a person's limb, and at a certain stage of the 

 operation fails to secure the main artery, and in consequence the 

 patient bleeds to death, where does the blame rest? Not with 

 the science, — that has its regular law of rule and contingency, — 

 but on him who thus ignorantly misperformed the operation. So 

 of neurotomy, if (and we are confident) it has here been performed 

 in direct opposition to the established rules of science and the 

 principles of practice, the results should be no criterion of its 

 general application or usefulness. Neurotomy was never in- 

 tended, nor is it calculated, to relieve every form of disease 

 occurring within a horse's foot, no more than trepanning is calcu- 

 lated to cure all diseases of the brain and its appendages ; but in 



