OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT 109 



Speaking of the median operation before a meeting of 

 the Central Veterinary Medical Society, Professor Hobday 

 says : *" 



' For old-standing lamenesses, when due to splints, 

 exostoses, chronically sprained, thickened, and painful 

 perforans and perforatus tendons, or cases of that kind 

 which cause pain by pressing on the adjacent nerve 

 structures, after all other known methods have failed, 

 median neurectomy is the operation which will be most 

 likely to give the animal a new lease of life and use- 

 fulness.' 



' Of the Humanitt/ and Utilitij of Neurectomij there can 

 be no question whatever, and provided the cases are well 

 selected, and the operation is efficiently performed, the 

 advantages to be derived from it are most striking as well 

 as enduring. But the disadvantages attending the loss of 

 sensation in the foot have been brought forward on many 

 occasions as an argument against neurectomy, and no one 

 can deny that the foot with sensation is better than one 

 without that faculty. But in a long experience of the 

 operation I have never found these disadvantages outweigh 

 the great advantages which have immediately followed it.'t 



Beyond these, the direct advantages of neurectomy, are 

 other and more indirect advantages which claim attention. 



The most astonishing among them is the fact noted by 

 many writers of repute that exostoses (ringbones, side- 

 bones, splints, etc.) rapidly diminish in size. This is 

 vouched for by such well-known authorities as Zundel and 

 Nocard. 



Percival, too, mentions at some length the effect of the 

 removal of pain on the oestral and generative functions, 

 quoting a case of a brood cart-mare by reason of bony 

 deposits being stayed from breeding for some years. Two 

 months after the operation she went to work, and moved 

 sound, her altered condition leading her to breed several 

 healthy foals. 



* Veterinary Record, vol. xiii., p. 427. 



t Veterinary Journal, vol. ix., p. 178 (Fleming). 



