672 
NEUROTOMY. 
the time Mr. C. wrote out his case (December 1829) present, doing 
his duty, with the regiment*. 
I shall next relate a case that occurred to Mr. Rickman, a 
name likewise associated with the practical worth of the early 
Numbers of The Veterinarian, which is remarkable on account 
of the extraordinary feats the horse, after being neurotomized in both 
fore feet, was enabled to perform, as well as for the extraordinary 
increase of value the operation conferred upon him. It is as 
follows : — 
Case 3. — A beautiful chestnut horse, six years old, for which 
his owner (a farmer) had refused a hundred guineas, though he 
possessed “ good circular hoofs,” became a little lame in both fore 
feet, but more so in the near than the off. A farrier who attended 
him pared his soles, and blistered his coronets, and finally fired 
him from hoofs to knees ; after which he was turned out, but came 
up, six months afterwards, worse than when he went out. Mr. 
Hilding, a friend of Mr. Rickman’s, related the case to him, and 
consulted on the policy of purchase of the horse for the purpose of 
neurotomy. Mr. R.’s advice was to do so. Accordingly the lame 
horse was bought for £12 for Mr. Rickman to neurotomize. The 
operation was performed on both legs below the fetlock joints. 
The horse was rendered by it, immediately, “ quite sound.” His 
new master, Mr. Hilding, who is a very superior horseman, rode 
him, afterwards, two seasons with the Shropshire hounds, and 
whenever they had a long run he was always in the front. He 
was offered 200 guineas for the horse, providing he would give a 
warranty, which however he could not, of course, do. Subse- 
quently, the horse was sold for 60 guineas to Mr. Gittins, who 
rode him for two years with Sir Richard Puleston’s hounds. He 
had then been operated upon four years, and still continued sound. 
“ He was considered one of the most brilliant leapers that was 
ever put at a fence!.” 
Mr. Thomas Turner, the present energetic and respected 
President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, some 
years ago possessed a horse on which he performed the operation of 
neurotomy, and which he afterwards rode hunting for two seasons, 
with as much confidence, I have heard him say, as though he had 
never been the subject either of lameness or of neurotomy. 
A Case of my own shall conclude this summary of the emi- 
nent success that has attended neurotomy in proper hands, under 
favourable circumstances. In June 1837, a captain of the regi- 
ment in which I have the honour at present to serve, made me a 
* These two cases will be found in ample detail in the second volume of 
The Veterinarian, pp. 493-5. 
f Veterinarian, vol. iii, pp. 42-3. 
