LAMENESS, FROM VARIOUS CAUSES. S83 



let down ti^e heel of the foot, not the fetlock, to the ground. The 

 flexor tendons support the pastern and foot-joints princi])ally, th« 

 fetlock joint having the additional strong support of the suspen- 

 sory ligament, which it still retains after the tendons have been 

 cut through. This accounts for the heel of the foot, without the 

 iRitlock, being let down by the operation of tenotomy. 



Having axrit the horse, and so secured the limb to be operated 

 a that there is not much chance of any interruption being occa- 

 tfioned through its motion, I recommend that a longitudinal in- 

 cision, three or four inches in length, be made through the skin, 

 along the back of the leg, down upon the middle portion of tho 

 flexor perforatus tendon. This incision freely and boldly made at 

 once, the operator will be able to stretch the mouth of the wound 

 he has made round to the inner side of the leg, in which stretched 

 position the skin is to be held by an assistant, while the oj^erator 

 introduces the fore-linger of his left hand, to push back the blood- 

 vedsels and nerve (which run along the inner borders of the ten- 

 dons) against the suspensory ligament, so that they be safe out of 

 the way, while with the right hand he insinuates his bistoury 

 between them and the flexor tendons. Opposing now the cutting 

 edge of the bistoury to the tendons themselves, he commences 

 incising them by a steady but firm and strong sawing movement, 

 until both be completely divided. I say he is to hold the bistoury 

 (wLi^h ought to be a stout one) firmly, and to use it with some 

 force, Lince such is the dense and tough texture of these tendons 

 that thf^f ire not cut completely through without some determi- 

 nation. Complete division being made of them, the heel of the 

 foot may not (in all probability will not) come down without 

 some extension of the leg ; and this must be made, not by such 

 violence as Mr. Goodenough found himself compelled to use, still 

 with such force as will, if possible, make the limb straight, by 

 stretching or even tearing through adhesions of moderate stand- 

 ing, so far as this can be efiected without tho risk of rupturmg 

 ligament or fracturing bone. The giving way of adhesions, in 

 Buch cases, is frequently attended with a sort of snap or jerk, de- 

 notive of their being overcome, a ad by this the end is known to 

 be answ^i^d, such adhesions and impediments to extension being 

 oommoniy situate about or in the vicinity of the fetlock -joint. 

 rhe usual and most efiective mode of accomplishing the extension 

 is, to place the kneo against the front of the ^etlock, and, gra^piiiy 



