OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT 103 



the connective tissue, the skin being removed only with 

 difficulty. The tendons were soft and much thickened. A 

 rupture of the skin at the coronet, just where the skin 

 meets the wall of the foot. Large extravasations of blood 

 at the back of the tendons, situated in the lower half. 

 External nerve trunk had become reunited, at the point 

 of junction there being a hard lump about the size of a 

 walnut. Internal nerve trunk also had become reunited, 

 and presented a thickened portion at the point of junction, 

 but not so large as that of the outer side, and situated in 

 the lower half of the tendon, about 2 inches higher than 

 that on the external nerve. This nerve trunk was atro- 

 phied below the thickening, and had undergone gelatinous 

 degeneration. Judging from the scars on the skin, this 

 side had evidently been unnerved a week or ten days pre- 

 viously to that on the outer side. The band stretching 

 across the back of the perforatus, between the external and 

 internal nerves, appeared on the inside to have become 

 firmly fixed into the tendon. 



' On removing the hoof, under the sole there appeared a 

 large quantity of very foetid pus ; the laminae were very 

 much inflamed in patches. There was an enormous thick- 

 ening of connective tissues in the heel. On cutting longi- 

 tudinally through the perforatus tendon, there was exposed 

 a large blood-coloured mass, of a gelatinous appearance, 

 situated on the perforatus tendon, the latter being very 

 much thickened, and growing to the navicular bone. The 

 underneath surface of the superior suspensory ligament 

 was much thickened, and firmly adherent to the bone ; at 

 the posterior surface of the metacarpus there was a quan- 

 tity of gelatinous substance. The anterior ligament of the 

 fetlock-joint was thickened; the navicular bone was entire, 

 but showed lesions of navicular disease, being ulcerated. 

 Section through the bone did not reveal anything further. It 

 may be here remarked that the ulcerations were on either 

 side of the central ridge, and not at all on the ridge itself. 



1 Microscopic examination of the tissue joining the two 

 ends of the nerve together revealed a few nerve fibres : the 



