160 INSANITY. 



the coronets, and use all other fitting means to hasten the growth of the horn to 



its pristine dimensions and its original quality ? 



In navicular disease, after he has removed, by the application of neurotomy, 

 that irritation which had so much to do with the perpetuation, if not the origin, 

 of the complaint, should he not, with the assured hope of success, pass his seton 

 needle through the frog, in order to get rid of every remaining lurking tendency tc 

 inflammation? The blister and the filing-iron will have as much power in abating 

 inflammation and producing a healthy state of the foot, after that foot had been 

 rendered insensible to pain, as it had before. We should fearlessly say that it 

 would have much more effect, one grand source of irritation having been removed. 

 The veterinary surgeon and the owner of the horse are becoming more and more 

 convinced of this ; and the dawning of a better day has commenced. 



The principle of neurotomy is plain and simple — it is the removal of pain. 

 Taken on this ground, it is a noble operation. It is that in which every friend 

 of humanity will rejoice. It may be abused. If no auxiliary means are 

 adopted — if in canker or quittor, or inflammation of the lamina, no means are 

 used to lessen the concussion and the pressure — the destruction of the part 

 and the utter ruin of the horse are the inevitable consequences. The primary 

 result is the removal of pain. It is for the operator to calculate the bearing of 

 this on the actual disease, and the future usefulness of the animal. 



On the question of the reproduction of the nerves there is no doubt. A horse 

 is lame, and he undergoes the operation of neurotomy. At the expiration of a 

 certain time the lameness returns, and he is probably destroyed. In the 

 majority of cases it is found that the nerves had united, or rather that a new 

 veritable nervous substance had been interposed. The time at which this is 

 effected is unknown. There have not been any definite experiments on the point. 



Can the horse that has undergone the operation of neurotomy be afterwards 

 passed as sound ? Most certainly not. There is altered, impaired structure ; 

 there is impaired action ; and there is the possibility of the return of lameness 

 at some indefinite period. He has been diseased. He possibly is diseased 

 now ; but the pain being removed, there are no means by which the mischief 

 can always be indicated. Beside, by the very act of neurotomy, he is pecu- 

 liarly exposed to various injuries and affections of the foot from which he would 

 otherwise escape. 



INSANITY. 



There is no doubt that the animals which we have subjugated possess many of 

 the same mental faculties as the human being — volition, memory, attachment, 

 gratitude, resentment, fear, and hatred. Who has not witnessed the plain and 

 manifest display of these principles and feelings in our quadruped dependants 1 

 The simple possession of these faculties implies that they may be used for pur- 

 poses good or bad, and that, as in the human being, they may be deranged or 

 destroyed by a multitude of causes which it is not necessary to particularise. 

 In the quadruped as in the biped, the lesion or destruction of a certain part of 

 the brain may draw after it the derangement, or disturbance, or perversion of 

 a certain faculty of the mind. It is only because the mental faculties, and good 

 as well as bad properties of the inferior beings, have been so lately observed and 

 acknowledged, that any doubt on this point can for a moment he entertained. 

 The disordered actions, the fury, the caprices, the vices, and more particularly 

 the frenzy and total abandonment of reason, which are occasionally shown by 

 the brute, are in the highest degree analogous to certain acts of insanity in man. 

 It is merely to complete our subject that they are here introduced. 



The reader is indebted to Professor Rodet, of Toulouse, for the anecdotes 

 which follow :— A horse, seven years old, was remarkable for an habitual air oi 



