and may have something
to do with those cases which appear to be actually _cured_, not merely made
to go sound by absence of pain.'[A]

[Footnote A: _Veterinary Record_, vol. xi., p. 297.]

Speaking of the median operation before a meeting of the Central Veterinary
Medical Society, Professor Hobday says:[A]

[Footnote A: _Veterinary Record_, vol. xiii., p. 427.]

'For old-standing lamenesses, when due to splints, exostoses, chronically
sprained, thickened, and painful perforans and perforatus tendons, or cases
of that kind which cause pain by pressing on the adjacent nerve structures,
after all other known methods have failed, median neurectomy is the
operation which will be most likely to give the animal a new lease of life
and usefulness.'

'Of the _Humanity and Utility of Neurectomy_ there can be no question
whatever, and provided the cases are well selected, and the operation
is efficiently performed, the advantages to be derived from it are most
striking as well as enduring. But the disadvantages attending the loss of
sensation in the foot have been brought forward on many occasions as
an argument against neurectomy, and no one can deny that the foot with
sensation is better than one without that faculty. But in a long experience
of the operation I have never found these disadvantages outweigh the great
advantages which have immediately followed it.'[A]

[Footnote A: _Veterinary Journal_, vol. ix., p. 178 (Fleming).]

Beyond these, the direct advantages of neurectomy, are other and more
indirect advantages which claim attention.

The most astonishing among them is the fact noted by many writers of repute
that exostoses (ringbones, side-bones, splints, etc.) rapidly diminish in
size. This is vouched for by such well-known authorities as Zundel and
Nocard.

Percival, too, mentions at some length the effect of the removal of pain on
the oestral and generative functions, quoting a case of a brood cart-mare
by reason of bony deposits being stayed from breeding for some years. Two
months after the operation she went to work, and moved sound, her altered
condition leading her to breed several healthy foals.

I. THE USE OF THE HORSE THAT HAS UNDERGONE NEURECTOMY.

No operation is of any considerable value to the veterinary surgeon unless
he is able to show that after it he has left his patient workable. The
alleviation of pain alone, commendable as it is from a humanitarian
standpoint, is of no interest to t