NEUROTOMY. 
257 
Of such accidents, or rather ill consequences of accidents, it would 
be useless to speak further ; and therefore I shall dismiss these 
avoidable grievances to examine 
The other Class of Evils arising out of Neurotomy, 
such as proceed from improper use of the horse after the operation, 
or at least of such use of him as under the circumstances of his 
special case he is, and ought, probably, to have been known to be, 
not in a condition to endure. To suppose that every foot deprived 
of sensation upon which a horse, in consequence, goes sound, is 
to bear any kind or amount of work the owner of the horse chooses 
to impose upon it, is running in the face of all reason. It is true, 
horses have hunted, have performed cavalry exercise, have car- 
ried their riders through long and fast journeys on the road ; have 
done extraordinary work in harness : it is equally true, however, 
that horses which have been neurotomized have failed from the 
moment they have been put to any hard work, or unusual effort, 
such having brought on inflammation and suppuration of the feet, 
followed by casting of the hooves, fracture of the navicular bone, 
rupture of the long flexor tendon at its place of insertion, &c. 
These are evils which may not at all times be avoided ; at the 
same time, we have no right to run in the very face of them by 
putting a neurotomized horse to severe or trying work, whose foot 
or feet, though he go sound, are not, from all we can judge from 
appearances and circumstances, in a condition to bear it. 
Can a Horse that has been subjected to Neurotomy be 
CALLED SOUND ] — “Most certainly, no !” replies our late honoured 
colleague, Mr. Youatt; and he pertinently adds, “ There is 
altered, impaired structure ; impaired action, and a possibility of 
the return of lameness at some indefinite period. Let the horse 
be ever so free from lameness, he has been disabled — he possibly 
is diseased now ; but the pain which usually accompanies the 
disease being removed, there are no means by which it (the pre- 
sumed or supposed disease) can be indicated.” So far so good. 
But let us put the case in a somewhat different light : it may be 
a strained light, but still the case has happened, and may again 
happen. Supposing a horse restored to soundness through neuro- 
tomy ; and supposing he continues to go sound for several years — 
nay, for life, afterwards ; and supposing satisfactory proof to be 
given, that in the said horse’s originally lame and senseless foot 
the power of feeling can be proved to have returned ; and to this 
add, that, after the most searching examination, no sign of existing 
disease is disclosed. Is such a horse to be regarded, in the eye of 
law or equity, as sound or unsound 1 We leave the question for 
the “ judges,” as well of horses as of law, to determine. 
