ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
;3G(» 
quittor, the inevitable destruction of the horse must follow the 
operation of neurotomy. In case of much ulceration or under- 
running, how much mischief will one day’s hard work effect, 
even although the horse bears as lightly as he can on the painful 
part, and permits no concussion that he can possibly avoid ! 
What would become of the pumiced foot if sensibility were with- 
drawn ? With his present careful way of placing his feet, and all 
the protection that we can afford to the attenuated and project- 
ing sole, we are in daily fear lest it should fail to support the 
weight that is thrown upon it. Alter the action of the horse, and 
let his foot come with that power and force to the ground, which 
the concave and healthy sole will hardly bear, and what will be- 
come of the pumiced foot? 
Few lessons having been given upon these points, and little about 
them being generally understood, is it to be wondered at that this 
operation should have been abused — that instead of increased 
usefulness it should be followed by fearful inflammation, rapidly 
spreading ulceration, and loss of the hoof, and inevitable death ? 
Prejudice against it — In addition to these things, it had to 
encounter the prejudices of the ignorant, and the determined oppo- 
sition of those who would allow no need of praise to any improve- 
ments that emanated not from themselves. The true theory of 
the nervous system was then altogether unknown. That the 
nutrition of every part depended on nervous influence was then 
as- now believed ; but no master mind had arranged this won- 
drous system according to the distinct and important functions 
which it exercises; and to destroy the nerve of the leg, was sup- 
posed, of necessity, to destroy the nutrition and life of the part. 
When the hoof occasionally dropped off, a plain and palpable 
proof was affirmed to be given of the folly of these would-be 
improvers. You may judge, gentlemen, what was then said of the 
absurdity of this new operation when you listen to the following 
remarks on it, proceeding — strangely proceeding — from a Pro- 
fessor in a foreign school. “ Far from believing them uncon- 
cerned with nutrition, we think that the nerves composing the 
axillary and lumbar plexuses preside equally over the sensi- 
bility, and the nutritive, and the secretory actions of the parts on 
which they terminate ; and we ask, if the nutrition of the foot 
depends on the influence of any other nerves than the plantar, 
why should the division of these be followed by the loss of the 
hoof ? # ” Stranger still is the language of a very superior writer of 
* MM. Dupuy and Prince, Journ. Prat. Oct. 1830. 
I think that a very promising and talented young veterinarian will, upon 
consideration, a little modify the language which he adopted in the discus- 
sion on the nervous system on the 2d of last February. “ Referring to the 
