SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 253 
and with it incises the enlargement, sending the blade right through 
the periosteum, and also through the substance of the exostosis, if 
it be not too solid for the knife to penetrate. This latter fact is 
only to be ascertained by actual experience, and no opinion formed 
after an external examination can be of any value, such being much 
more the guess of a pretender than the judgment of a surgecn. 
The age of the animal may be some guide, but even this it is 
better not to depend upon too entirely. It is true that young 
horses freely cast forth exostoses, which aged animals mostly 
absorb; but this rule, though very general, has exceptions. and 
by no means is to be absolutely depended upon. 
The enlargement being cut through, next take a seton-needle, 
armed with a tape, and draw it through the channel already made. 
Tie a knot at either end of the tape, large enough to prevent its 
being pulled through the opening at either end, and the business 
is over. The affair is very simple, and the horse may be at once 
let up. It is, however, in some cases, and only in some, of so much 
benefit that the horse, being thrown ‘dead lame,’ gets up and trots 
off quite sound. However, ere you adopt the operation, apprise 
the owner of the risk incurred, and that it is by no means a cer- 
tain cure. Leave the choice with him, but be sure and tell him 
the opening made for the entrance and exit of the seton com- 
monly leave a blemish behind them; and where the seton trav- 
eled, often there remains a thickening, which it may require months 
to obliterate. 
The after part of the treatment consists in merely having the 
seton daily moved to and fro, though some persons apply an active 
blister all over the parts immediately in the neighborhood of the 
seton, under the idea that the vesicatory renders the operation of 
greater efficacy, which, however, is very questionable, When pe- 
riosteotomy acts at all, it mostly does so at once; and when ita 
benefits are not immediate, it is better to withdraw the seton, te 
prevent after-blemish, rather than hazard further and useless treat- 
ment by the application of a stimulant to skin already deprived 
of any connection with the deeper-seated structures. 
DrvIision OF THE FLEXOR TENDON. 
There are so many accidents and diseases that may produce 
contraction of the flexor tendons, that we only wonder we do not 
