THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. IX, No. 105.] SEPTEMBER 183G. [New Series, No. 45. 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
By Mr. You att. 
LECTURE VIII (continued). 
Neurotomy. 
THE Object and Effect of Neurotomy . — The immediate result 
of the operation of Neurotomy is the removal of pain — that pain 
which interferes with the immediate usefulness of the horse, or 
which, by its continuance and constitutional influence, would 
heighten and perpetuate inflammation and disease. But the 
removal of that pain, — is good, unmixed good, the invariable 
consequence of this? I have already partly answered that 
question. You interfere not with the vital functions of the part, 
for they depend on a different system of nerves. You diminish 
not muscular action, for there is not a muscular fibre of the volun- 
tary motor system below the knee. The solipede and the rumi- 
nant are the only quadrupeds of which this can be said. They are 
the only ones with regard to whom the operator can be certain, 
except where the proper and distinct sensitive and motor nerves 
of the face are concerned, that while he is dividing a sensitive 
trunk or fibre he is inflicting no injury on any motor one — or, 
rather, they are the only animals in which a sensitive nerve can 
be divided, without including some motor one in the section. 
Tell me in the human being! tell me in the carnivorous quadru- 
ped, where you would divide the metacarpal or the plantar nerves, 
in a case of extreme pain and lameness of the foot, without tem- 
porarily or permanently paralysing some important part of the 
foot. In the greater portion of the habitable world the most nu- 
merous and the most cruelly taxed of the servants of men are 
solipedes and some genera of ruminants with divided hoofs, but 
with whom the metacarpal and the metatarsal bones are not mul- 
tiplied. On the solipede alone has this noble operation yet been 
performed ; but increased anatomical research will convince the 
VOL. ix. 3 s 
