58 
NEUROTOMY. 
which it ought to have occupied from the first, and which it is not 
likely now to suffer displacement from. 
The Insuccess of Neurotomy, principally from causes which 
will be pointed out, may be shewn in various ways. Horses can 
be brought forward who have experienced no benefit from it; nay, 
cases can be related in which horses have thrown off their hoofs in 
consequence of it. The foot deprived of its power of feeling is as 
liable to receive injury as, perhaps more liable than, one that 
retains its sensibility. Either from being pricked in shoeing, from 
picking up a nail in the road, from a wound from a flint stone or a 
piece of glass lying in the road, or a bruise from the opposite foot, 
or a festered corn, or some other like cause, the senseless foot re- 
ceives injury; which, not being as in the natural foot accompanied 
by pain, continues unheeded by the horse, and probably by his 
master, and the result is, inflammation and suppuration, it may 
be to an alarming extent, before any discovery be made of the 
mischief. Under such circumstances, we cannot, have no right 
indeed to, feel surprise at purulent matter having under-run the 
sole and insinuated itself between the laminae, so as, in the end, to 
occasion the separation of the hoof from the foot. Is neurotomy 
to blame in this case 1 Was the master or groom not called on to 
pay especial attention to the foot or feet of an animal of which he 
had caused the nerves of sensation to be cut in two? Would any 
man of common reason suppose that a foot without feeling could 
evince pain or lameness from injury the same as a foot with feel- 
ing I And would he not consider it his duty, by attention to his 
horse’s feet, to compensate in some measure for the deprivation he 
had caused him 1 I know that such occurrences as loss of hoof 
have arisen from over-work, or from work greater than the foot 
in the state in which it was operated on was prepared to bear, 
and that under such circumstances such a melancholy termination 
has been unavoidable : at the same time, I believe this to be a rare 
incident when due circumspection has been employed. 
To command Success in Neurotomy three considerations 
require attention : — 
lstly. The subject must be fit and proper ; in particular, the 
disease for which neurotomy is performed should be suitable in 
kind, seat, stage, &c. 
2dly. The operation must be skilfully and effectually performed. 
3dly. The use that is made of the patient afterwards should not 
exceed what his altered condition appears to have fitted him for. 
The veterinarian who suffers himself to be guided in practice by 
considerations such as these will have little cause to regret having 
embarked in the experiment : on the contrary, in the long run, he 
will find he has thereby restored numbers of horses to work who 
