REPORTS OF CASES. 
455 
CHLOROFORM AND COCAINE IN NEUROTOMY. 
By James Henderson, M.R.C.V.S., (Edinburg). 
The expediency of performing- the operation of neurotomy, 
or more properly speaking neurectomy, is still, in the minds 
of some practitioners, a method of doubt; but its value as a 
means of relieving foot lameness will not be considered in the 
following remarks; their purpose is only to offer a few obser¬ 
vations upon the relative merits of chloroform and cocaine as 
suitable anaesthetics in the performance of the operation. The 
wiiter had the pleasure of assisting at two such operations, 
both performed by Professor Walley, of Dick’s Veterinary 
College, Edinburgh, in which chloroform was used in one 
case, and cocaine employed in the other ; and a description of 
the essential points of difference on the production of anaesthe¬ 
sia in each, will aid us in the consideration of this subject. 
In the operation in which chloroform was used, the patient 
was a small bay mare over twelve years of age; she was suf¬ 
fering from navicular disease. After being cast, chloroform 
was administered by means of a sponge applied to the nostril. 
Befoie any incision was made a linen bandage was rolled 
tightly on the part, beginning at the hoof and extending up¬ 
wards to near the knee; the object of this was to remove as 
much blood as possible from the part to be operated upon, 
and to retain the effect of it, an elastic tourniquet was then 
applied three or four inches above the site of the higher oper¬ 
ation. The bandage was then removed, the incision made, 
and the nerve dissected out. About three-quarters of an inch 
of the plantar nerve was cut out and the wound treated in the 
ordinary way. When the nerve was found and manipulated, 
the mare showed marked signs of sensibility, and when it was 
cut she started violently. No bad effects followed the use of 
chloroform in this case. 
In the second case, the patient was a sorrel mare, slightly 
laiger than the first, aged, and suffering from ring-bone. Be¬ 
fore casting, cocaine was injected at the site of the higher 
opeiation, by means of a hypodermic syringe. About a 
