ike evidence after long and severe trials of
neurotomized horses. The opponents of neurotomy were, probably, not aware
that there is in progression a _muscular_ as well as a _tactile sense_.'

This latter contention is supported by numerous cases, reported at the time
when the operation of neurectomy was at the heyday of its popularity. Two I
select from writings of a later period:

_Recorded Cases_.--1. 'Two of the finest among the many fine horses in the
Second Life Guards were so lame from navicular disease, when I joined the
regiment, that they were unsafe and unsightly to ride, and were therefore
entered on the list to be cast off and sold. One was so crippled that it
could scarcely be moved out of its stable. Peeling sorry at having to get
rid of such good horses, and anxious to give another blow to the mistaken
theory that unnerved animals were unsafe, I obtained the consent of my
commanding officer, who patronizes practical conclusions, to perform
neurotomy. This was carried out on both horses about eighteen months ago.
Within a fortnight they were at their duty, absolutely free from lameness,
and with first-rate action, and one of them, from being troublesome and
unsteady in the ranks--probably from the pain in its feet--had become quite
steady and tractable. Instead of being lame, blundering, and unsafe, both
were sound, free in movement, and secure, and, the pain being abolished,
they looked improved in condition.

'During the month of July the regiment attended the summer drills at
Aldershot, and five days every week for a month these horses carried a
weight of about 22 stones each over the roughest and most dangerous ground,
nearly always at a fast pace, and for four, five, or six hours each day;
and yet they never fell or blundered, and the troopers who rode them had
unbounded confidence in their sure-footedness. They returned to Windsor, at
the end of the month's severe test, as sound in their paces as when they
left, and certainly now offer no indication whatever that they are less
safe to ride than any other horse in the regiment. The effects of the
relief from pain are also most marked, not only in the altered gait out of
doors, but also in the stable.'[A]

[Footnote A: _Veterinary Journal, vol_. ix., p. 178 (George Fleming,
F.B.C.V.S.).]

2. 'Some years ago I operated upon a valuable hunter, the property of a
gentleman in Kildare, the animal having shown unmistakable symptoms
of navicular disease