MEMOIR ON TENOTOMY. 
589 
to separate the perforated tendon from the perforans, nor this latter 
from the band with which it is united towards the upper part of 
the cannon. 
When, on the other hand, the contraction of the flexor muscles 
is the result of one of the indirect causes which we have speci- 
fied, no alteration is perceptible in the tendinous portions of these 
muscles. 
Various modes of treatment have been recommended for the 
purpose of getting rid of these peculiar deviations of the articula- 
tion of the fetlock caused by some lesion of the flexor tendons of 
the phalanges, or the fibrous band which unites one with the other, 
or even by some disease in the lower parts of the limb. The treat- 
ment resorted to ought to depend on the duration of the evil, and 
still more on the cause whence it arises. For example; when, 
in consequence of the incessant action and influence of an indirect 
cause, some one of the legs begins to lose its perpendicularity, 
when the fetlock has an evident tendency to be thrown forwards, 
no time must be lost, if we would avoid the necessity of having 
recourse to the operation of tenotomy, in endeavouring to get rid 
of this cause of the contraction of the tendons of the profundus or 
perforans muscles, and the great or perforated. The most effectual 
mode of arresting a deviation of the obliquity of the inferior bones, 
when first it appears, is by the use of powerful revulsives, em- 
ployed with discernment and applied to the region which forms the 
seat of the cause of the disease, and by moderate exercise as soon 
as the animal is able to walk. 
If the cause of this deformity be situated in the tendons them- 
selves, it may, even then, be combatted by the application of 
powerful revulsives to the diseased part, as firing; but such a mode 
of treatment must only be employed with the greatest care and cir- 
cumspection, since it may prove beneficial or most injurious, accord- 
ing to the degree of its intensity. 
When, notwithstanding all the curative and remedial means re- 
sorted to, in order to prevent this deformation of the articulation of 
the fetlock, the animal has become knuckling-over, recourse must 
be had to the operation of tenotomy, the results of which are more 
or less beneficial and permanent according as the cause of the evil 
is direct or indirect, and one tendon only, or simply the fibrous 
band, has undergone an alteration. 
The operation of tenotomy may either be performed in the old 
way, so well described in 1832 by Professor Delafond, or, as it is 
now done, by cutting one or both the flexor tendons underneath 
the skin. But, whichever the method that is preferred, the animal 
must first of all undergo certain indispensable preliminary prepa- 
rations, as paring out the foot of the diseased limb, taking care in 
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