25U DADD'S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



not manipulate, or attempt to force it out, but enlarge the opening, 

 and the substance will come through when that is long enough ; 

 but no fingering could compel its exit while the opening is too 

 small. The end gained for which the incision was made in the 

 cesophagus, the wound may be then closed by the interrupted su- 

 tures, each holding a small piece of tow above the orifice, and 

 having their ends hanging out of the external opening, which 

 should also be brought together by sutures. The after-treatment 

 should be to interdict all dry food ; the animal ought to subsist 

 on very thick gruel for three, four, or five days. If the condition 

 appears to suffer much, allow malt mashes, and when so doing 

 watch the wound ; and if the matters taken in are seen to ooze out, 

 wash them away frequently with warm water, to prevent lodg- 

 ment, which might encourage sinuses to form ; and after each 

 washing, syringe with some very mild stimulant, as a very weak 

 solution of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), etc. 



Neurotomy (Division of the Sentient Nerves of 



the Foot). 



Neurotomy has now stood the test of very extensive application. 

 Our writers offer innumerable proofs of its restoring almost useless 

 animals to a state of much utility ; and if there are chances that 

 it may occasion such injury as to hasten the end of some horses, 

 it is usually in such as, the disease would have done the same for 

 at no distant period. Having stated thus much in its favor, it 

 must not be supposed that we recommend it as an unqualified 

 benefit, even where it succeeds best. No neurotomized horse ever 

 after goes with the same freedom, nor with equal safety, as he did 

 before the operation was performed. Indifference to the nature 

 of the ground gone over is said to have fractured legs ; it is quite 

 common to batter the feet to pieces; and, although horses have 

 hunted afterward, and hackneys have carried their riders long 

 distances, yet it is more calculated to prove beneficial to carriage 

 than to saddle-horses. This we believe to be a just statement of 

 its merits ; but there are benefits which it offers to the animal of 

 a more extensive ana constitutional kind. Those gained by the 

 bodily system generally have been, in some cases, very marked. 

 Thus, an aged and crippled stallion, from the irritation constantly 

 kept up, became so emaciated as to be unable to fecundate ; but, 



