THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XX, No. 240. DECEMBER 1847. New Series, No. 72. 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. and V.S. 
[Continued from p. 608 .] 
Neurotomy. 
NEUROTOMY — compounded of two Greek words, viz. Tf/xvw to 
out , and vsvgov a nerve — was at the suggestion of that warm- 
hearted and revered friend of the veterinary profession, the late 
Dr. Geo. Pearson, introduced by me, in my “ Lectures,” in the 
year 1823, as an appropriate appellation for what commonly went 
by the name of “ unnerving,” and sometimes by that of “ nerving:” 
phrases which, besides being untechnical, were neither of them 
definite or distinctive enough in their meaning for professional 
use. 
Definition. Neurotomy, as the operation is now understood, 
may be defined to be, the division of a nervous cord, and the 
subsequent excision of a portion of it, with the view of removing 
pain through the destruction of feeling. The plantar nerves are 
those commonly operated on ; but any nervous cord of the body 
may, if occasion called for it, become the subject of neurotomy. 
The Purpose for which NeurotoxMY is performed is, 
usually, the removal of lameness; though the operation may 
have, and has had, other objects. And the lameness the most 
certainly and the most effectually removed by it, is foot-lameness, 
and especially of a navicularthritic description : hence the reason 
of the account of neurotomy being here annexed to that of navi- 
cularthritis. 
The Introduction of Neurotomy into Veterinary Me- 
dicine is comparatively of modern date. For years before, the 
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