DISEASES OF HORSES 319 



cord, red, tense, and varying in size from a hazelnut upward. If 

 there is no material swelling and little protrusion, the wound may 

 be enlarged with the knife and the end of the cord broken loose 

 from any connection with the skin and pushed up inside. If the 

 swelling is larger, the mass constitutes a tumor and must be removed. 



SWELLING OF THE SHEATH, PENIS, AND ABDOMEN. 



This occurs in certain unhealthy states of the system, in un- 

 healthy seasons, as the result of operating without cleansing the 

 sheath and penis, or of keeping the subject in a filthy, impure build- 

 ing, as the result of infecting the wound by hands or instruments 

 bearing septic bacteria, or as the result of premature closure of the 

 wound, and imprisonment of matter. 



Pure air and cleanliness of groin and wound are to be secured. 

 Antiseptics, like the mercuric chloride lotion (1 part to 2,000) are to 

 be applied to the parts ; the wound, if closed, is to be opened anew, 

 any accumulated matter or blood washed out, and the antiseptic 

 liquid freely applied. The most tense or dependent parts of the 

 swelling in sheath or penis, or beneath the belly, should be pricked 

 at intervals of 3 or 4 inches, and to a depth of half an inch, and anti- 

 septics freely used to the surface. Fomentations with warm water 

 may also be used to favor oozing from the incisions and to encourage 

 the formation of white matter in the original wounds, which must 

 not be allowed to close again at once. A free, creamlike discharge 

 implies a healthy action in the sore, and is the precursor of recovery. 



TUMORS ON THE SPERMATIC CORD. 



These are due to rough handling or dragging upon the cord in 

 castration, to strangulation of unduly long cords in the external 

 wound, t adhesion of the end of the cord to the skin, to inflamma- 

 tion of the cord succeeding exposure to cold or wet, or to the presence 

 of infection. These tumors give rise to a stiff, straddling gait, and 

 may be felt as hard masses in the groin connected above with the 

 cord. They may continue to grow slowly for many years until they 

 reach a weight of 15 or 20 pounds, and contract adhesions to all sur- 

 rounding parts. If disconnected from the skin and inguinal canal 

 they may be removed in the same manner as the testicle, while if 

 larger and firmly adherent to the skin and surrounding parts gene- 

 rally, they must be carefully dissected from the parts, the arteries 

 being tied as they are reached and the cord finally torn through with 

 an ecraseur. When the cord has become swollen and indurated up 

 into the abdomen such removal is impossible, though a partial de- 

 struction of the mass may still be attempted by passing white-hot 

 pointed irons upward toward the inguinal ring in the center of the 

 thickened and indurated cord. 



CASTRATION OF THE MARE. 



Castration is a much more dangerous operation in the mare 

 than in the females of other domesticated quadrupeds and should 

 never be resorted to except in animals that become unmanageable on 

 the recurrence of heat and that will not breed or that are utterly un- 

 suited to breeding. Formerly the operation was extensively practiced 

 in Europe, the incision being made through the flank, and a large 



