NEUROTOMY. 
489 
pansion and some degree of it, actively blister the coronets in 
order to hasten the growth of horn of the pristine dimensions and 
quality ? 
Navicular Disease . — In navicular disease should I not with 
more hope of success apply my seton through the frog in order 
to subdue the remaining inflammation, after I had removed that 
irritation which had so much to do with the perpetuation if not 
the origin of it. 
Recapitulation. — This is a view of the operation which ought 
to be more regarded by practitioners and horse owners than it has 
hitherto been. A blister, or the firing-iron, will have as much power 
in abating inflammation, and producing a healthy state of the 
foot, after that foot has been rendered insensible to pain as it had 
before ; nay, I should say much, much more, one grand source of 
irritation having been removed. We have not yet been sufficiently 
aware of the distinction between the two grand nervous systems, 
the animal and organic, — those that connect us with living beings 
around us, and those that are essential to life itself: but the 
dawning of a better day has commenced. 
French Notions of Neurotomy . — You probably know with what 
difficulty this noble operation fought its way to proper estimation 
among our continental brethren; and although now, with the 
exception of a few, and those certainly of deserved reputation, it 
is acknowledged by the French veterinarians to be one of the 
noblest improvements in our art, yet there is a caution with re- 
gard to the practice of it, at which we, perhaps, shall be some- 
what disposed to smile. Until the last two or three years, it was 
diligently inculcated on his pupil by the French Professor, that 
an operation interfering so much with the vital functions of the 
foot should be very cautiously resorted to ; and that no man 
should dare to perform it on both sides of the leg on the same 
day. Every failure or mishap was traced to the ignorant pre- 
sumptuousness of the surgeon who, by infringing on this rule, 
saved much after-pain to his patient by settling the matter at 
once, instead of suffering ten or twelve days to intervene between 
the two operations. Now it is permitted to the surgeon, if both 
legs require to be neurotomized, to operate on both sides of one 
leg to-day, and of the other a fortnight hence. I do not know 
that the English veterinarian has ever repented of making quicker 
work of it ; for, as I have said, it is a very simple operation ; it 
is not a thousandth part so painful as some operations to which 
the horse must occasionally be submitted, and, if it be decently 
performed, there is no danger at all about it. 
Enlargement of the Extremities of the divided Nerve. — There 
is one inconvenience which occasionally follows neurotomy, but 
VOL. ix. 3 T 
