DIVISION OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS IN A HORSE. 307 
muscular substance, along with the tendinous cords, into its very 
substance, the two being knit closely and compactly together ; or, 
to use the dealer’s phrase, “ the thighs being let down into the 
hocks.” A horse with straight thighs will have straight hocks ; 
and these, though their straightness cannot be regarded, abstract- 
edly, but in a disadvantageous light, while they are the best or 
only kind which could have suited such a make of limb, may still 
be good of their kind, and therefore are not to be condemned. The 
os calcis may be lengthy and prominent upward, and the lateral 
projections may stand well and clearly out from the sides, and the 
hock, though straight, may, as I said before, still be considered 
good. 
Hocks, I must repeat once more before I conclude, are of that 
importance in action that they deserve, in our examinations, to 
command much attention from us. A horse may have very good 
hocks, and yet be so shapen in other respects as to be worth very 
little ; but hardly any thing can compensate for bad hocks, the 
hock being in its operation that in progression which the oar is to 
the boat. Without power therein no horse can go well and long : 
he may possess action, but he cannot fail to prove deficient in 
strength and endurance. 
ON DIVISION OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS IN A 
HORSE. 
By Mr. Thos. Mather, V. S. f Edinburgh. 
In perusing some of the contributions to your valuable Journal 
of last year, I observed a few successful cases of this operation 
recorded by some practitioners, and particularly by Mr. Carlisle, 
V.S., Wigton, who had operated with the same success, and which 
he attributes solely to a new system in veterinary surgery. 
Having, lately, had an opportunity of performing that opera- 
tion, I determined on putting Mr. Carlisle’s plan to the test of 
experiment, and am happy to say with complete success. 
The patient was a valuable carriage horse, the property of a 
gentleman in this town, eight years old, and with contracted 
flexor tendons in the near fore leg, for which he had been fired 
and repeatedly blistered about a year ago. Notwithstanding all 
this, he became gradually worse; the foot contracted, and the 
metacarpal bone overlapped the os suffraginis to a great extent; 
so much so, that, ere long, he would have been walking on the 
front of the fetlock joint. 
As the owner did not wish to lose the animal, I was desired to 
