260 UADD'S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



more often meet with them, which we should certainly do, but 

 that the attendants, despairing of being able to afford relief, ad- 

 vise their destruction. The operation consists in making a longi- 

 tudinal incision, of about three inches in length, along the inner 

 lateral edge of the tendon, dissecting each portion from its cellular 

 attachments, so as to expose the nerve, artery, and tendons. Thi& 

 opening will allow the perforans to be freed from the perforatus, 

 when a division should be made by a scalpel applied to its surface, 

 It is evident that this should take place below any thickening, or 

 adhesions, which may have permanently connected the tendon with 

 the neighboring parts. Any lesser attachments will be broken 

 through, by forcing back the foot to the just position. By Mr. 

 Dick this was done ' by placing his knee against the front or pro- 

 jecting part of the pastern, at the same time laying hold of the 

 foot with one hand and the upper part of the leg with the other, 

 and using considerable force ; and this appears to be necessary, in 

 order to break any adhesions that may have formed/ The limb 

 should now be placed in a poultice; and if any fear of future con- 

 traction should arise dunng the cure, lengthen the toe of the shoe 

 proper to the foot operated on. Some slow exercise, after the 

 first week, may be allowed, but previously to that the horse should 

 be confined to a stall, during which the bowels must be kept open 

 with mashes. 



Amputations. 



These have been hitherto confined principally to the tail, the 

 ears, and other parts of minor importance in the animal frame ; 

 but veterinary surgery now takes a wider field, and the extremi- 

 ties are amputated with a certainty of making horned cattle still 

 serviceable for the purpose of yielding milk ; and, without doubt, 

 the same might be done with the brood-mare or stallion, particu- 

 larly in fractures of the fore extremities. 



Professor Dick, of the Edinburgh Veterinary College, furnishes 

 a case, sent to him by one of his pupils, to the following effect : 

 'I performed amputation upon a cow on the 7th of July. After 

 having properly secured the animal, and applied a torniquet above 

 the carpus, I made a circular incision through the integuments 

 round the leg, a little below the carpus; and, having separated 

 the skin so as to allow of its being pushed up a little, I cut through 

 the sinews, and lastly sawed off the stump. The parts are now 



