AN INTERESTING CASE OF MELANOSIS. 
203 
prove melanotic , and, should such turn out to be the case, the 
prospect would be less hopeful. There was, however, one fact 
which justified expectation that it was not of the worst character; 
for I had not known, read, or heard, that this disease had ever 
attacked the part on which this enlargement was placed. Still, 
there was no portion of the body which might not be involved, and 
the tumour at the base of the tail made me fear the horse was 
affected by the disease to which age and colour predisposed it. 
Under all the circumstances, I gave it as my opinion that an 
operation held out the only prospect of permanent and decided 
benefit. I professed myself willing to undertake it, and sufficiently 
sanguine in the result to feel justified in recommending it should 
be performed. If no operation was to be undertaken, I strenuously 
advised that no other measures should be adopted, especially as 
those already employed had acted directly contrary to the intention 
which induced them to be resorted to. I promised no certain cure. 
I took no pains to render him who honoured me by consulting my 
judgment confident int he issue of that which I proposed: on the 
contrary, I was careful to make the gentleman aware that attending 
operations there were accidents for which surgery could not be 
held responsible; and I endeavoured to render him alive to all the 
dangers which make our profession one of particular anxiety. 
Yet, in conclusion, I declared that, if there were some risk in the 
removal of the tumour, there was, in my opinion, danger, actual 
and positive, in allowing it to remain. 
I quitted the gentleman’s company with his acknowledgments, 
and an assurance that, so soon as he could procure another horse 
to fill the place of the one affected, he would let me know, and the 
operation, without loss of time, should be performed. 
After this I heard no more of the affair for some time; but the 
gentleman mentioning his resolution to some acquaintance, it seems 
each gave to him their advice, and, of course, no one countenanced 
the determination he had formed. On horse matters, every in¬ 
dividual that ever crossed the animal is, in his conceit, a sage; 
and however much the veterinarian may be puzzled, these persons 
never are at fault. They spoke with all the confidence I dared not 
assume, and the proprietor at last was glad when one, more con¬ 
siderate than the rest, proposed the horse should be submitted to 
Mr. Mavor for his opinion. 
To Bond-street, therefore, the animal was sent. Mr. Mavor, jun. 
saw the horse, and he pronounced the removal by the knife an 
impossibility, but advised the application of iodine ointment to the 
surface of the enlargement. The proprietor was, no doubt, surprised 
by the recommendation so decidedly opposed to the resolution he 
had perhaps wished to have confirmed. He did not at once reject 
