438 
DIVISION OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS. 
already mentioned, was found, after the calf was extracted, to 
resemble the fore leg, more especially in the form of the hock joint, 
which exactly resembled the knee. 
Division of the Flexor Tendons. 
In our number for March, Mr. Holford has given an account 
of a case in which the division of the flexor tendons had not been 
followed with the advantages he expected, and requests to be 
informed of the result of some of those cases which have been 
recorded in our Journal, alluding especially to the animal men¬ 
tioned by the late Mr. Castley, which was operated on by Mr. 
Dick. The pressure of business has prevented us from giving 
Mr. Holford the information he wished for; but it was in a great 
measure supplied by Mr.Young, of Garnkirk, and might have, in¬ 
deed, been left entirely to that answer. 
The successful or unsuccessful termination of an operation 
does not, in every case, establish the propriety or impropriety of 
its repetition, because there may be many collateral circum¬ 
stances which would lead, in one case, to an unexpected or 
unwished for termination, and which may, at the same time, be 
totally distinct from and independent of either the operation or the 
ordinary consequence of it. We hold, that the veterinary sur¬ 
geon who expects to be able to restore parts to their entirely 
original condition by operations, and who, unless he can do so, 
will not operate, must be deterred from doing that which is good in 
many cases, and will at last find it necessary to operate ; for experi¬ 
ence and observation will teach him to take another view of things, 
and lead him to content himself with being able to restore parts 
to a condition which may enable his patients to perform their 
labours with less pain to themselves and with more advantage 
and pleasure to their owners. Had Mr. Holford’s informant re¬ 
specting the case operated on by Mr. Dick been honest, he 
would have informed him of the circumstances connected with 
the affair he alludes to; and it would then, perhaps, have been 
a matter of less astonishment to Mr. Holford that the horse was, 
at the end of six months, as bad as ever, than to have been in¬ 
formed that he continued sound. 
