J80 
ON NEUROTOMY. 
fession, we shall be very much disposed to shew him up in 
proper colours. 
M. Berger relates several cases of navicular disease in which 
all means failed to remove the lameness. He then gives us a 
very candid account of his own experiments. A mare had been 
lame nearly twelve months, and the mode of treatment recom¬ 
mended by the most skilful practitioners could only afiord a 
temporary palliation of the lameness. A portion of the nerve 
was excised, March 28, 1827. Six weeks-afterwards she ap¬ 
peared to be perfectly sound ; but being sent to Paris to be re¬ 
viewed she fell lame on the same leg. Much enlargement 
appeared round the coronet, and the hoof seemed to be separat¬ 
ing from the foot. By the use of proper means all this disap¬ 
peared, and at the end-of June she was again sound, and re¬ 
mains so. > 
Another horse had been lame two months. The operation was 
performed on the outside of the leg on the 11th of April. There 
was much previous engorgement. The incision was necessarily 
deep, and considerable inflammation and tumefaction succeed¬ 
ed. On the 25th the operation was performed on the inside of 
the leg, and the lameness was perfectly removed. 
A third horse had a portion of the nerve excised on the out¬ 
side, and, two months afterwards, he was as lame as ever. The 
nerve on the outside of the leg was then divided, and the ani¬ 
mal became sound. 
M. Berger was therefore satisfied as to the efficacy of the 
operation; but, as the first horse, who had undergone the full 
operation at once, became lame in two months, although that 
lameness soon disappeared, he is disposed to attribute this to 
the division of both the nerves at the same time. We confess 
that we altogether-differ from him, and ascribe it to the long 
journey undertaken before the inflammation was quite subdued. 
M. Berger candidly acknowledges that, from so few facts, he 
is not justified in forming a decided opinion, but he tells us, 
what we knew not before, that many English veterinarians 
prefer this divided operation. If it be so, we are not of their 
number; but should regard it as an unnecessary waste of time, 
an increase of expense to the proprietor, and a protraction of 
suffering to the patient. We rather suspect that the same friend 
who informed him of the ring-bone-firer, has here likewise 
misled him. However this may be, we are much indebted to 
M. Berger for directing the attention of the French veterina¬ 
rians to this valuable operation, and if he should succeed in in¬ 
troducing and establishing it, he will render an essential service 
