OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT 99 



After-treatment. — This is simple. Over each wound is 

 placed a pledget of antiseptic cotton-wool or tow, and the 

 whole lightly covered with a bandage soaked in an anti- 

 septic solution. For the first night the animal should be 

 tied up short to the rack, and the following morning the 

 bandages removed. A little boracic acid or iodoform, or a 

 mixture of the two combined with starch ( starch and boracic 

 acid equal parts, iodoform 1 drachm to each ounce) should 

 now be dusted over the wounds, the antiseptic pledgets 

 renewed, and the bandage readjusted over all. 



At the end of three or four days the bandages may be 

 dispensed with. All that is necessary now is an occasional 

 dusting with an antiseptic powder, and, as far as possible, 

 the restriction of movement. At the end of a week the 

 sutures may be removed, and the animal turned into a 

 loose box or out to pasture. 



E. MEDIAN NEURECTOMY. 



As a palliative for lameness when confined to the foot, 

 one would imagine that the plantar operation would be all 

 sufficient. There are operators, however, who state that 

 the results following section of the median nerve have been 

 such as to cause them to entirely abandon the lower opera- 

 tion in its favour. If only for that reason a brief mention 

 of the operation must be made here. 



The operation was first performed in this country in 

 October, 1895, the subject being one of the out-patients at 

 the Royal Veterinary College Free Clinique. 



For five or six years following this date Professor 

 Hobday performed the operation some several hundred 

 times, annd was certainly instrumental in bringing the 

 operation into prominence. Though so recently introduced 

 here, it appears to have been practised for several years on 

 the Continent, originating in Germany as early as 1867. 

 ]n that country a first public account of it was published in 

 1885 by Professor Peters of Berlin, while in France it was 

 introduced by Pellerin in 1892. 



