3816 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
the animal is not worth a long and uncertain treatment, a competent 
veterinarian should be engaged to perform double neurectomy, high 
or low, of the plantar nerves, or neurectomy of the median nerve as 
indicated by the seat of the Jesion. — 
SIDEBONES. 
On each side of the bone of the hoof—the coffinbone—there are 
normally two supplementary organs which are called the cartilages 
of the foot. They are soft, and though in a degree elastic, yet some- 
what resisting, and are implanted on the lateral wings of the coffin- 
bone. Evidently their office is to assist in the elastic expansion and 
contraction of the posterior part of the hoof, and their healthy and 
normal action doubtless contributes in an important degree to the 
perfect performance of the functions of that part of the leg. These 
organs are, however, liable to undergo a process of disease which re- 
sults in an entire change in their properties, if not in their shape, by 
which they acquire a character of hardness resulting from the de- 
posit of earthy substance in the intimate structure of the cartilage, 
and it is this change, when its consummation has been effected, that 
brings to our cognizance the diseased growth which has received the 
designation of sidebones. They are situated on one or both sides of 
the leg, bulging above the superior border of the hoof in the form of 
two hard bodies composed of ossified cartilage, irregularly square in 
shape and unyielding under the pressure of the fingers. 
Cause.—Sidebones may be the result of a low inflammatory condi- 
tion or of an acute attack as well, or may be caused by sprains, bruises, 
or blows; or they may have their rise in certain diseases affecting the 
feot proper, such as corns, quarter cracks, or quittor. The deposit of 
calcareous matter in the cartilage i is not —— uniform, the base of 
that organ near its line of union with the coffinbone being in some 
cases its limit, while at other times it is diffused throughout its sub- 
stance, the size and prominence of the growth varying much in 
consequence. 
Symptoms.—It would naturally be inferred that the degree of 
interference with the proper functions of the hoof which must result 
from such a pathological change would be proportioned to the size of 
the tumor, and that as the dimensions increase the resulting lame- 
ness would be the greater in degree. This, however, is not the fact. 
A small tumor while in a condition of acute inflammation during the 
formative stage may cripple a patient more severely than a much 
larger one in a later stage of the disease. In any case the lameness is 
never wanting, and with its intermittent character may usually be 
detected when the animal is cooled off after labor or exercise. The 
class of animals in which this feature of the disease is most fre- 
