Reported Cases.—­1.  This animal, a mare, had been rested for lameness behind for two or three weeks, and then sent out to work, going sound.  This was repeated several times, and each time the coachman reported, “Goes very lame behind after she has been at work about fifteen to twenty minutes.”  She always pulled out sound when I saw her in a halter on the following day, so I had her ridden, and after about seven or eight minutes she began to go lame in a hind-limb.  Her lameness got rapidly worse as she was being ridden, and within a quarter of mile of her first showing lameness, she dropped and carried the lame foot in a way that suggested a badly fractured pastern.  There was no recognisable disease in the limb to account for this lameness.

’I divided the posterior tibial nerve, and she went back to work moving sound, and continued to work sound up to her death from one of the regularly fatal bowel lesions twist or rupture.

’She worked nearly two years after unnerving, and developed the usual thickening at the coronet.’[A]

[Footnote A:  W. Willis, M.K.C.V.S., Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. xv., p. 366.]

2.  ’The subject of this note was a chestnut mare, nine years old, and used for omnibus work.

’History.—­For about two months the mare was lame on the off fore-leg, and in spite of treatment the condition became steadily worse.  The off fore-foot was rather long and narrow, and the fetlock-joint was inclined to be bowed outwards, but the degree of lameness was out of proportion to these defects, and the diagnosis was obscure.

’Median neurectomy was performed on May 10, 1902, and reduced the lameness to about half of what it was before.  On June 5 ulnar neurectomy was performed, with the result that the mare became sound, and went to work three weeks later.  She continued to work soundly and well, being inspected from time to time.

’During February of 1903 the coronet began to enlarge in front and slightly to the outer side, and gradually a ridge of bone grew down from the coronet to the toe.  The case, in fact, became a typical one of so-called “buttress foot,” which my friend Mr. Willis has described as diagnostic of disease of the pyramidal process of the pedal bone.  Meanwhile the swelling of the coronet, which appeared to be mainly composed of fibrous tissue, increased in size, until the whole of the front and sides became involved, assuming the appearance shown in Fig. 156.

’In spite of the coronary enlargement the mare worked well, and remained free from lameness till June 8, 1903, on which day the limb became swollen up to the site of the median operation.  The appearance of the limb closely simulated an attack of lymphangitis.  The mare was kept under observation till the 13th of the same month, during which time the swelling increased, as did also the lameness to a slight degree.  During progression she brought the heel to the ground and “rocked the toe,” as in a case of rupture of the perforans tendon.  The mare was killed on June 13.