NEUROTOMY. 



681 



after a short time, sensation will be restored, and the operation 

 will be resultless. 



High plantar neurectomy and median neurectom}' are the two 

 varieties of this operation most commonh' practised on a fore leg. 

 High plantar operation deprives the foot and pastern of sensa- 

 tion ; and median neurectomy produces a similar effect on almost 

 the entire limb, from a little below the elbow. Hence, this is speci- 

 ally useful when the seat of pain is in the knee or fetlock. It 

 consists in the removal of about an inch of the median nerve on the 



Horse in a con^-enient position to be shot. 



inside of the leg, just below the elbow, and at the rear edge of the 

 radius (the chief bone of the fore arm). It is frequently performed 

 on city cart and cab horses. As I have never done this operation, 

 I am unable to describe it, which is regrettable because it is the 

 better operation of the two. The following remarks on neurectomy 

 will therefore be confined to the high plantar operation, which I 

 have frequently performed. 



The two nerves which endow the horse's foot with the power of 

 feeling, pass down each side of the leg, just in front of the perforans 

 tendon (Fig. 6, p. -31), immediately above the fetlock joint. These 

 nerves are about the thickness of an ordinary piece of twine, and 



