ANIMAL CASTRATION. 79 



according to the method employed in its performance, 

 and in any case they may be considered in two divi- 

 sions ; as primary or immediate, and secondary or 

 consecutive. 



Amongst the first phenomena most commonly ob- 

 served is, of course, a manifestation of pain, character- 

 ized by symptoms of colic, exhibited by the animal 

 in a more or less marked degree, being the result of the 

 unavoidable irritation arising from the manipula- 

 tions practised upon the organs of generation, whose 

 nerves rise from the sympathetic as well as from the 

 cerebro-spinal nervous system ; and from the pain 

 excited in the spermatic cord by the pressure of the 

 clamps, for example. These colicky pains, which are 

 more severe under the bloodless method than in 

 those of the other mode, usually subside after the 

 first hour following the operation, and as a rule re- 

 quire but little treatment more than that of the 

 walking exercise. This sort of pain having subsided, 

 the only further trouble likely to be noticed is the 

 local trouble resulting from the lesion to which the 

 testicular region has been subjected. Resulting from 

 this local lesion, as well as from the rough manipula- 

 tions attending the various steps of the different pro- 

 cedures, a peculiar stiffness will be observed in the 

 motion of the animal. This may be referred either 

 to the local pain proper, to the dragging to which 

 the cord has been subjected, or to the presence of 

 the clamps, which, resting closely in the groin, nec- 

 essarily more or less impede the action of locomo- 

 tion. 



