MEMOIR ON TENOTOMY. 
591 
same kind, called a curved tenotomy knife, the point of which is 
round and blunt, and the blade concave on the sharp side ; the 
first was merely introductory to this one, which completes the ope- 
ration. It is to be turned towards the perforant tendon, and this 
cut through by giving the instrument a slight undulatory move- 
ment. If the operation is to be double, the instrument is then 
turned towards the perforated tendon, which it severs in a similar 
manner. A peculiar crackling sound, — the instantaneous separa- 
tion of the two ends of the tendon, which can be distinctly felt be- 
neath the skin, — and, lastly, the re-appearance of the angle of the 
fetlock, which had been effaced by the contraction — all these are 
signs that the operation is completed. A dry bandage is then ap- 
plied to the middle part of the cannon and kept on by means of a so- 
lution of gum arabic, and the animal is got up on its feet. When 
the nerves, vessels, and synovial sheaths have not been touched by 
the knife, the severed tendon quickly heals, and the animal suffers 
very little. But, when either of these parts are wounded during 
the operation, the results are by no means so favourable, and 
troublesome if not dangerous complications often supervene. 
In ordinary cases the tendinous region swells a little after the 
lapse of a few days; but this swelling rarely becomes any thing 
considerable, or causes much pain : it will, however, frequently 
remain for a long time after the operation, and often cannot be got 
rid of without firing the limb. When a tendon which has been 
severed by either of these modes of operating is subsequently 
examined, an amorphous substance, or veritable plastic lymph, will 
be found between the softened ends of the tendon. This is neither 
more nor less than the tissue of the cicatrice, and the formation of 
irregular fibres may be traced throughout its structure. This newly 
formed tissue has contracted an intimate adhesion with the extre- 
mities of the severed tendon : it is, however, for a very consider- 
able time the seat of an abnormal sensibility, which causes the 
animal to go lame. If, notwithstanding this lameness, it is worked, 
and that, too, on hard and uneven ground, the tendinous region 
swells, becomes hot, pressure on it gives the animal great pain, 
and the deviation in the articulation of the fetlock shortly re- 
appears. — j Recue il de Medecine Veterinaire Pratique , Jan. 1845. 
