GUTTA PERCHA A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHERN SOLES. 621 
The views I have taken, and which you corroborate, will ere 
long be adopted by the profession at large, in defiance of the mere 
theoretical deductions advanced by Mr. Yarnell in the last number 
of the Veterinary Record. That gentleman considers it strange 
that I should venture to operate on a part contributing to the form- 
ation of a bursal cavity, or, in plain words, so high up the leg. 
My answer is, that I did so not from choice but necessity, it being 
my invariable custom to operate above any tumefaction consequent 
upon disease or former operation, should such be situated at the 
usual point of section. I do so in preference to cutting through 
any diseased mass; and if I open a bursal cavity, as a matter of 
course my after treatment is regulated accordingly. T may further 
adduce the entire controul we exercise over the motions of the knee 
joint, which enables us to contend successfully with opened bursse 
of this part, even when attended with lacerated and extensive ori- 
fices, and, in all probability, neglected cases into the bargain. Such 
being an admitted fact, surely, we have a far better chance of 
success, in cases diametrically opposite, where the orifice is small, 
the incision clean, and attended to forthwith. This is the whole 
secret of the success which we know has attended those who have 
performed the simple operation of tenotomy, without any particular 
pretensions to science, either in an anatomical or pathological point 
of view. 
Enough of this subject for the present, and 
I remain, Sir, 
Your’s respectfully. 
W. Percivall, Esq. 
GUTTA PERCHA A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHERN 
SOLES. 
By the same. 
Mr. Editor, — I n directing your attention to that singular vege- 
table production called gutta percha as a substitute for leather soles 
for horses’ feet, allow me first to state, that I am aware a letter has 
already appeared upon the subject from Dr. Gill, of Stepney. 
Having been anticipated by that gentleman, I shall be very brief 
in my remarks ; otherwise, I should have given you fuller par- 
ticulars of the results of some experiments I have been trying for 
several months past, and of which some of my acquaintance have 
been aware. 
The roads in this immediate neighbourhood being repaired en- 
tirely with flints, a great many horses are consequently shod with 
VOL. XXIII. 4 o 
