666 
NEUROTOMY. 
division of nerves had been practised by human surgeons, in 
particular for the relief of that most painful of all painful affec- 
tions, lie doloureux ; but there is no mention of any application of 
the operation in veterinary surgery prior to the time of Moorcroft ; 
nor was it until Professor Sewell had announced himself as, and 
was acknowledged to be, THE DISCOVERER OF NEUROTOMY FOR 
THE REMOVAL OF LAMENESS, that Moorcroft, who had left 
England for India, came forward and advanced his claims to that 
honour; which he did in March 1819, in a letter “ To the Editor 
of the Calcutta Journal,” as follows : — 
“ Sir, — With reference to your paper of the 23d inst., noticing 
as discovered by Mr. Sewell, within about the last eighteen 
months, a cure for a lameness in horses, commonly called ‘ coffin- 
joint lameness,’ I beg to observe, that the mode of treatment 
alluded to, so far from being a discovery of the last eighteen 
months, was practised by me about eighteen years ago /” 
“ Finding that diminished supply of blood (by tying both the 
inner and outer artery of the fetlock) did not counteract the mis- 
chievous effects of pressure on the inflamed tendon, I turned my 
thoughts towards subduing its increased sensibility by diminishing 
the proportion of nerve naturally distributed on the foot. On this 
principle I raised the outer nerve of the fetlock joint out of its bed 
with a bent probe, and cut it across with a pair of scissors. This 
was done in several instances, and always with immediate and 
decided lessening of lameness ; frequently, indeed, the animal when 
he rose from the bed appearing perfectly sound. But the result 
was not uniformly and permanently successful, relapse of lameness 
occasionally taking place after a period of soundness for some 
weeks, and as often at grass as at work.” — In an operation of the 
kind Mr. Moorcroft performed on a horse, the property of Lord 
G. H. Cavendish, in a struggle the animal made at the moment 
the nerve was divided, it broke its back. At first, Mr. Moorcroft 
confined himself to the division of one (the outer) plantar nerve : 
afterwards, however, he bethought himself, that, “ if it should 
happen that the division of both nerves should completely remove 
the pain, and exercise restore the original facility and latitude of 
motion to the joint, and that by degrees the sensibility should be 
reproduced, so far as might be necessary for the complete per- 
formance of all the functions of the foot and limb, a new and rich 
field would be opened to physiological research. It was resolved, 
therefore, to divide both nerves, in a case of relapse of great lame- 
ness in a mare. The animal on rising from the bed trotted boldly 
and without lameness, but now and then stumbled with the foot 
operated on. The wound healed in a few days, and the mare was 
put to grass.” She progressed favourably for some weeks, but 
