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 for some months previously, and which had been unsuccessfully combated by the milder forms of treatment for the disease without any benefit.  Although the horse went sound, the owner feared to ride him, and sent him to be sold in Dublin, where he was disposed of for a small price, and I then lost sight of him.  The following Punchestown Races, to my surprise, amongst a group of horses walking round the paddock previous to saddling for an important race, I recognised my old patient, bandaged, clothed, and trained, ready to take his part in the cross-country contest, and surrounded by a host of admirers willing to back him at any price.