244 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
fronts of the fetlocks nearer and nearer to the ground. I proposed 
the operation of tenotomy, which was performed by myself at Wind- 
sor in July or August — I forget which — in 1838. Within a month 
afterwards the horse walked to London. He was kept four months 
after this, in the course of which his legs became much less bowed, 
and he acquired strength in standing and walking upon them. It 
being evident, however, that there was no prospect, young as he 
was, of his ever recovering strength sufficient to carry a life- 
guardsman, he was cast and sold, being then but in his third year. 
What became of him afterwards I lost all means of ascertaining. 
In this instance we cannot call the success more than partial. I 
shall next transcribe, from the seventh volume of The VETERINA- 
RIAN, a well-narrated case of unsuccessful result; one that will 
serve to put us on our guard against harbouring vain hopes our- 
selves, and holding out too flattering prospects to others. 
Mr. J. Holford, V.S., Middlewich, was applied to concerning a 
valuable horse, nine years old, who from a kick upon the off hind 
leg received two years before, for which he had been blistered 
repeatedly and once fired, had come to work gradually worse upon 
the limb, until at last he came to walk upon the point of his toe. 
His owner had been told that the heel might be brought down 
upon the ground again through an operation, and it was on this 
account that Mr. Holford was consulted. He accordingly operated. 
In six weeks afterwards the patient was in a state to be turned to 
grass, “ without much perceptible lameness.” In three months he 
shewed no lameness, placing his heel down “ apparently with as 
much facility as the other.” Another month’s grace was given 
him, and he was then put to work (which was drawing a fly-boat 
along a canal), but had not proceeded eight miles before he began 
to walk lame. The owner sent him home greatly disappointed, 
and gave him six weeks’ longer rest. He was again taken to work, 
but not allowed to do more than half what other horses did. For 
two months he kept up at it ; then, once more walked upon his 
toe, though “ not so much as before.’’ At the time of this report 
of his case he is, with a lever shoe upon his foot, turned out for a 
winter’s run, not worth £10; “ whereas, had he done well, three 
times that amount would not have bought him.” 
In the same (the seventh) volume of The VETERINARIAN, se- 
veral cases are given by Mr. Young, V.S., of Muirhead, Garnkirk, 
N. B. In one horse, whose off fore leg was much thickened, had 
been fired, and was so much contracted that “ he could put the tip 
of the toe only to the ground,” he “cut the leg,” as the operation is 
there called; and the result was, although under unfavourable cir- 
cumstances from the distance the patient was at, that “ at the end of 
nine weeks he was drawing a cart.” The leg remained “ thick,” 
