186 
W. J. TORRANCE. 
cause of extirpating the sinus, when dependent, and when 
smeared with some excitant. 
The actual cautery is highly spoken of in quittor, by secur¬ 
ing a dependent opening when the cause is a suppurating 
corn, to allow escape of matter, and mild injections will hasten 
a cure ; (agnoz). 
Blistering is lauded by some and in some cases might be 
successful; that is, in punctured wound in ccecum, and by ab¬ 
sorption in early stages of injury might check. 
COCAINE IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF LAMENESS, 
By W. J. Torrance, V. S., Cleveland, Ohio. 
About three years ago, when I started to practice in Cleve- 
and, I was astonished to find that several of the local veter¬ 
inarians were performing neurotomy upon equines in the 
standing posture, by the simple use of hydrochlorate of 
cocaine. I decided that I was about to trot in fast company, 
and that I must speed with modern appliances. The use 
of cocaine upon large nerve trunks was then new to me ; hav¬ 
ing, however, used it quite extensively since that time, I shall 
briefly relate a few of the cases where it proved of interest 
to me. 
The first subject for trial was a case of chronic lameness 
in a fore limb, in which no appreciable changes in the anato¬ 
my of the limb were present by which to positively locate the 
affection. Some authorities claimed this a case of shoulder 
lameness. I injected along each metacarpal nerve one and 
one-half drachms of a five per cent, solution of cocaine, and 
ten minutes later led the horse out to be cast for operation, 
lie, however, did not walk lame; so I trotted him every ten 
minutes, and was surprised to find that for one hour he posi¬ 
tively refused to limp , and then in the course of a few minutes 
he became painfully lame again. I neurotomized the limb 
and the operation proved a success. 
1 now surmised, firstly, that I had a “ dope ” for lame 
horses ; secondly, that I had a positive test for many obscure 
lamenesses. 
