OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT 111 
nevertheless, others who maintain with equal stoutness 
that the unnerved animal is positively as safe, if not safer, 
than the animal who has not been so treated. 
‘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 progression, no one who has paid attention to 
the results of plantar neurectomy 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 has been vastly improved compared with 
what it had been previous to it. And my opinion has not 
been single in this respect, as many competent horsemen 
can give like evidence after long and severe trials of 
neurotomized horses. The opponents of neurotomy were, 
probably, not aware that there is in progression a muscular 
as well as a tactile sense.’ 
This latter contention is supported by numerous cases, 
reported at the time when the operation of neurectomy was 
at the heyday of its popularity. Two I select from writings 
of a later period : 
Recorded Cases.—1. ‘ Two of the finest among the many 
fine horses in the Second Life Guards were so lame from 
navicular disease, when I joined the regiment, that they 
were unsafe and unsightly to ride, and were therefore 
entered on the list to be cast off and sold. One was so 
crippled that it could scarcely be moved out of its stable. 
Feeling sorry at having to get rid of such good horses, and 
anxious to give another blow to the mistaken theory that 
unnerved animals were unsafe, I obtained the consent of my 
commanding officer, who patronizes practical conclusions, 
to perform neurotomy. This was carried out on both horses 
about eighteen months ago. Within a fortnight they were 
at their duty, absolutely free from lameness, and with first- 
rate action, and one of them, from being troublesome and 
unsteady in the ranks—probably from the pain in its feet 
-—had become quite steady and tractable. Instead of being 
