70 
ON THE DISCOVERY OF NEUROTOMY. 
joint with a firm thread, to the end that you retard not their cure ; 
a little silk is very good for that purpose ; then cut the vein be- 
neath, and let it bleed : if it bleed too long, you may bind up the 
orifice with a large band and a compress.” 
Upon this extract Mr. Cherry makes the following note : 
“ Solleysel, as well as most other old writers, knew but little 
of minute anatomy ; and the directions he gives to ‘ bar the vein/ 
seem really to indicate the modern nerve operation, claimed by 
Sewell as a discovery, and subsequently by Coleman and Moor- 
croft as a mode of treatment formerly practised by each of them. 
Although he mentions veins only, it is very evident that the opera- 
tion was not confined to the vein alone, for in that case the ligature 
above the cut would be useless ; but with the artery included 
within the ligature, profuse hemorrhage would be prevented, while 
the moderate bleeding which he seems to allude to would go on 
from the open orifice of the vein, and also from the lower portion 
of the artery supplied by anastomising branches, which, though 
small at first, soon increase in size, and carry on the circulation as 
freely as before. If, then, this artery was included in what he 
merely calls the vein, it is hardly possible, and certainly not at all 
probable, that the nerve was left out.” 
Whether Solleysel’s ignorance of minute anatomy was so great 
that he could not distinguish the difference between artery and vein, 
or whether he was of opinion that “ a nerve is a long small bone , 
with very fine pipes or hollow fibres , wrapped up in the dura and 
pia mater, which not only covers them all in common, but also 
encloses every fibre in particular,” I do not think, from the meagre 
account he has given us of this operation, that we can safely arrive 
at the conclusion that he included both nerve, artery, and vein in 
his ligature. Let us refer, for a few moments, to the testimony of 
one of the old writers alluded to by Mr. Cherry in his note. 
The evidence I shall produce is our earliest English author, 
Blundeville, who flourished more than a century before Solleysel ; 
and I would especially direct the attention of Mr. Cherry to a 
perusal of that part of his work which treats on the true “ Arte of 
Paring and Shooying all maner of Horses ;” for this simple reason, 
that he will there find, briefly and quaintly expressed, all those 
leading principles which are to be found in Solleysefs work, in 
which, and Mr. Osmer’s, Mr. Cherry has stated, alone “ are to be 
found all the supposed discoveries, principles, and improved prac- 
tices of later years , as regards the shoeing of horses .” 
After devoting a chapter on “ how many veins a horse may 
be let blood in, and to what end,” and after stating how these 
veins may be found, Blundeville devotes the next chapter to “the 
order of taking up veins, and wherefore it is good,” which he 
