NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE I/I 



LETTER XXXII 



CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emasculates both man, 

 beast, and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the 

 other sex. Thus eunuchs have smooth, unmuscular arms, 

 thighs, and legs ; and broad hips, and beardless chins, and 

 squeaking voices. Gelt stags and bucks have hornless heads, 

 like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like ewes ; 

 and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, 

 like cows : for bulls have short straight horns ; and though they 

 mutter and grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low 

 in a shrill high key. Capons have small combs and gills, and 

 look pallid about the head, like pullets ; they also walk with- 

 out any parade, and hover chickens like hens. Barrow-hogs 

 have also small tusks like sows. 



Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of masculine vigor 

 puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that 

 are looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, 

 in his book on husbandry, carries it much farther ; for he says 

 that the loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange 

 effect on the ability itself : he had a boar so fierce and venere- 

 ous, that, to prevent mischief, orders were given for his tusks 

 to be broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered this injury 

 than his powers forsook him, and he neglected those females 

 to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom 

 no fences would restrain him. 



LETTER XXXIII 



THE natural term of a hog's life is little known, and the 

 reason is plain because it is neither profitable nor conven- 

 ient to keep that turbulent animal to the full extent of its 

 time : however, my neighbor, a man of substance, who had 

 no occasion to study every little advantage to a nicety, kept 

 a half-bred bantam -sow, who was as thick as she was long 

 and whose belly swept on the ground, till she was advanced 



