670 OPERATIONS. 



on the sensory nerve or nerves, above the seat of pain, so that 

 no painful impression can be received by the nerve centre. If the 

 nerves be simply divided (neurotomy), the cut ends will unite after 

 a short time, sensation will be restored, and the operation will be 

 resultless. 



High plantar neurectomy and median neurectomy are the two 

 varieties of this operation which are most commonly practised on a 

 fore leg. The former deprives the foot and pastern of sensation; 

 and the latter produces a similar effect on almost the entire limb, 

 from a little below the elbow. Hence, it is specially useful when 

 the seat of pain is in the knee or fetlock. It consists in the 

 removal of about an inch of the median nerve on the inside of the 

 leg, just below the elbow, and at the rear edge of the radius (the 

 chief bone of the fore arm). It is frequently performed on city 

 cart and cab horses. As I have never done this operation, I am 

 unable to describe it, which is a fact I regret, because I believe it 

 is the better operation of the two. The following remarks on 

 neurectomy will therefore be confined to the high plantar operation, 

 which I have frequently performed. 



The two nerves which endow the horse's foot with the power of 

 feeling, pass down each side of the leg, just in front of the per- 

 forans tendon (Fig. 6, p. 31), immediately above the fetlock joint. 

 These nerves are about the thickness of an ordinary piece of twine, 

 and are white, tough, and fibrous in appearance. Each of them is 

 accompanied by a vein and artery, the former being in front; and 

 the latter, as a rule, in the middle. The word "van" furnishes 

 us with a useful aide-memoire by which to remember how these 

 structures lie. Their relative position, however, is not invariably 

 constant. 



NEUROTOMY AS AFFECTING A HORSE'S USEFULNESS.— 

 " That the tactile sense in the horse's foot is useful, it would be 

 idle to deny; but that it is absolutely essential even to safe pro- 

 gression, no one who has paid attention to the results of plantar 

 neurotomy will maintain. On several occasions, for years I have 

 hunted, hacked, and driven horses which have been deprived of 

 sensation in their fore feet, and never had an accident with them. 

 Their action has not been impaired by the operation ; on the 

 contrary, it was vastly improved, compared with what it had been 

 previous to it. And my experience has not been singular in this 

 respect, as many competent horsemen can give like evidence after 

 long and severe trials of neurotomised horses. The opponents of 

 neurotomy were probably not aware that there is in progression 

 a muscular as well as a tactile sense " (Fleming). 



