84 THE FORELEG AND SHOULDER. 



incisioa through the skin, either directly above, 

 or below the fetlock joint ; and then dividing, 

 or even entirely removing, a small portion or 

 the nerves that supply the foot with sensibility. 

 After this, the groggy horse appears perfectly 

 sound : but it must be remembered, that the 

 disease is not cured, though the pain and lame- 

 ness are removed. In many cases the disease 

 goes gradually on, till the horse breaks down, 

 throws off the hoof, or, in some other way, 

 becomes quite useless. This is quite a com- 

 mon affair in England : but in Scotland, the 

 operation is rarely practised. Where it is per- 

 formed merely that the horse may be got rid 

 of, the usual result is that which I have just 

 mentioned : but there are other cases, where, 

 when properly performed, it makes a perfect 

 cripple serviceable for many years, and is a useful 

 operation, notwithstanding what has been said 

 against it, by those who neither know how nor 

 when to perform it. But the purchaser, who 

 can neither know why nor how it has been per- 

 formed, should never buy an unnerved horse. 



Sometimes one, and sometimes both legs are 

 operated upon : and as the incisions never heal 

 so well as to leave no trace of their having been 



