DISEASES OF HORSES 317 



most commonly adopted, castration by clamps, will alone be noticed. 

 The animal having been thrown on his left side, and the right hind 

 foot drawn up on the shoulder, the exposed scrotum, penis, and 

 sheath are washed with soap and water, any concretion of sebum 

 being carefully removed from the bilocular cavity in the end of the 

 penis. The left spermatic cord, just above the testicle, is now seized 

 in the left hand, so as to render the skin tense over the stone, and the 

 right hand, armed with the knife, makes an incision from before 

 backward, about three-fourths of an inch from and parallel to the 

 median line between the thighs, deep enough to expose the testicle 

 and long enough to allow that organ to start out through the skin. 

 At the moment of making this incision the left hand must grasp the 

 cord very firmly, otherwise the sudden retraction of the testicle by 

 the cremaster muscle may draw it out of the hand and upwards 

 through the canal and even into the abdomen. In a few seconds, 

 when the struggle and retraction have ceased, the knife is inserted 

 through the cord, between its anterior and posterior portions, and the 

 latter, the one which the muscle retracts, is cut completely through. 

 The testicle will now hang limp, and there is no longer any tendency 

 to retraction. It should be pulled down until it will no longer hang 

 loose below the w r ound and the clamps applied around the still at- 

 tached portion of the cord, close up to the skin. The clamps, which 

 may be made of any tough wood, are grooved along the center of the 

 surfaces opposed to each other, thereby fulfilling two important in- 

 dications (a) enabling the clamps to hold more securely and (b] 

 providing for the application of an antiseptic to the cord. For this 

 purpose a dram of sulphate of copper may be mixed with an ounce of 

 vaseline and pressed into the groove in the face of each clamp. In 

 applying the clamp over the cord it should be drawn so close with 

 pincers as to press out all blood from the compressed cord and 

 destroy its vitality, and the cord applied upon the compressing 

 clamp should be so hard-twined that it will not stretch later and 

 slacken the hold. When the clamp has been fixed the testicle is cut 

 off one-half to 1 inch below it, and the clamp may be left thus for 

 twenty-four hours; then, by cutting the cord around one end of the 

 clamp, the latter may be opened and the stump liberated without 

 any danger of bleeding. Should the stump hang out of the wound it 

 should be pushed inside with the finger and left there. The wound 

 should begin to discharge white matter on the second day, in hot 

 weather or the third in cold, and from that time a good recovery may 

 be expected. 



CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO SUCCESSFUL CASTRATION. 



The young horse suffers less from castration than the old, and 

 very rarely perishes. Good health in the subject is all important. 

 Castration should never be attempted during the prevalence of 

 strangles, influenza, catarrhal fever, contagious pleurisy, bronchitis, 

 pneumonia, purpura hemorrhagica, or other specific disease, nor on 

 subjects that have been kept in close, ill ventilated, filthy buildings, 

 where the system is liable to have been charged with bacteria or 

 other products. Warm weather is to be preferred to cold, but the fly 



