526 
S. J. J. HARGER. 
Some of the above cases have been followed as long as a 
year and over, and the animal was still able to do his usual 
work. 
Complications and Seqnelce of Plantar and Digital Neurec¬ 
tomy. —Injury to collateral artery of the canon and the digital 
arteries aud veins or the metatarsal veins may result in degen¬ 
eration of the foot. 
i. Recurrence of the lameness may take place in from one 
month to several years. In fact, the horse may not go sound at 
anytime after the operation. Again the lameness may continue 
for some weeks afterwards and then disappear. This I have 
seen in several cases. The recurrence or continuance may re¬ 
sult from one or more of three causes : 
a. Errors in Diagnosis .—I have no doubt but what some 
very obscure lamenesses are often mistaken for navicular 
trouble, even in some of those cases perhaps, which I have 
classified in this paper. The animal is nerved, and the oper¬ 
ation is condemned. 
b. Recurrent Nerve Supply. —M. Arloing has demonstated 
in the plantar nerves of the horse recurrent fibres which estab¬ 
lish peripheral relations between the branches of these nerves 
and the nerve trunks. Some of the fibres instead of terminating 
in peripheral corpuscles or plates in the diseased tissues, make 
ascending loops and reach the main trunk, through the col¬ 
lateral branches. Given a section of the digital nerve, the pos¬ 
terior terminating branch of the plantar nerve below the fetlock, 
the recurrent branches coming from the diseased part return by 
way of the collateral branches given off above the point of sec¬ 
tion, and thus a certain amount of sensation in the parts below 
is retained. This distribution influences the degree of lameness 
which remains. 
c. Regeneration of the Nerve. —The nerve tissue may regen¬ 
erate itself at the central end and the two extremities thus at¬ 
tain physiological union. The time required for this process 
varies according to, or at least is modified by, the length of the 
portion excised. After simple section, it follows in about a 
