NEUROTOMY. 
487 
scarcely a drop of blood to obscure his view, and he will never 
mistake the nerve lying in the middle, and distinguished by its 
whiteness and its hardness. You will now, by means of the 
crooked needle and thread passed under it, elevate the nerve at 
the upper part of the incision from the bloodvessels, and, taking 
care not to wound the neurilema or sheath of the nerve, you 
will dissect away a portion of the intervening cellular substance. 
Then, changing your scalpel for the bistoury, and warning your 
assistants to be ready, you will introduce the bistoury under the 
nerve at the upper part of the incision, and by a sawing kind of 
motion divide it. This cautious division of the nerve is a cir- 
cumstance most carefully to be attended to ; for there will always 
be a considerable struggle when the nerve is divided, and if it 
is done at once the shock may be dangerous or destructive. 
I will illustrate this in Mr. Moorcroft’s own words : “ A horse 
with coffin-joint lameness was thrown and secured; the nerve on 
the outside of the fetlock was bared by two strokes of a round- 
edged knife, and cut across with the crooked knife. The instant 
the nerve was divided the horse made a violent and sudden 
exertion to disengage himself. A crash, as if from within his 
body was heard by the bystanders, and my intelligent assist- 
ant felt the shock of the internal fracture as he lay on the 
animal, and whispered in my ear that the horse had broke his 
back : this, in fact, had happened.” 
Operation continued . — The painful and the dangerous part of 
the affair is now over. You will take the portion of the nerve 
below the division between your finger and thumb or the 
forceps (the former, in our operations on the living animal, while 
they form the oldest also constitute the best instrument) and 
detach it from its cellular adhesions with the bloodvessels as far 
down as you think proper — more than an inch it should always 
be — and then cut it off with the knife or scissors. The horse must 
now be turned, in order to get at the other side of the leg, and 
the same operation performed. The edges of the wounds being 
brought together, a small piece of clean tow should be placed 
over each, and secured by means of the roller applied pretty 
tightly. The wounds will generally heal by the first intention. 
Stitches will delay the cure and increase the blemish. The horse 
should be placed in a loose box for a few days, and his neck 
guarded with a cradle : a dose of physic should be given, and 
his regimen should be mashes or green meat. And so ends the 
operation of neurotomy, as simple an one as a surgeon will ever 
be called on to perform, and yet one of the most important in its 
consequences. 
