252 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



" Yesterday, the 25th of May, M. Guenon arrived at Aurillac, and immediately proceeded 

 ■with the uieriibers of your Committee to the Yeyrac farm, beloiigiiig to the President of the 

 Society. He examined witli tlie utmost care the fine cow-stahle of that domain, wiiich em- 

 braces one hundred cows, of tlie best varieties that we possess. He then began his experi- 

 ments upon a number of cows which were presented to him, and which liad designedly been 

 selected from among the best, the moderately good, and the most inditferent of the establish- 

 ment. Upon each of these separately, M. Guenon pronounced with precision, both in regard 

 to her daily yield of mUk, and to the time duiing which she continued to give milk alter be- 

 ing got with calf" 



When Jenner commenced his examinations concerning the cow-pox in Eng- 

 land, in 1776, it was at first treated by the physicians as unworthy of attention, 

 and twenty years elapsed before it gained credence to be introduced in the public 

 hospitals. " It was," says the French Committee, " after more than twenty years 

 of observations and researches, that M. Guenon succeeded at length in discover- 

 ing certain natural and positive signs, which constitute the basis ol his method — 

 a method henceforward proof against all error." The famous Tyrian purple 

 was produced from an animal juice, discovered by accident in a fish's shell. 



Reflecting on the singularity and the importance of this discovery, especially 

 to dairy husbandmen, (and, indeed, to the poorest man keeping a single cow,) 

 founded, as it is, on observations of certain phenomena observable on that portion 

 of the cow's frame appropriated as the depository of the milky secretions — a cer- 

 tain diflerence being there observable, not only in the direction of the growth of 

 the hair, but in what is called the dandruf, or scurf, at the roots of the hair — it 

 occurred to us as having some analogical support in the admitted effect of a dif' 

 ferent secretion, the presence or the absence of which is seen and acknowledged 

 to produce a very marked difference between the entire and the mutilated male, 

 and that as well in the human race as with birds and animals: a difference not 

 confined to ihe form and size of particular parts of the body, as the head and 

 neck, but extending to the color and the voice, and even to a striking modifica- 

 tion of the moral qualities, in man and beast. 



How unlike the roar and fierce spirit of the bull are the squeaking voice and 

 docile temper of his brother, the ox — the hair on the forehead of the one curhng 

 like the grain of the gnarled oak, while the face of the other is mild and smooth 

 as a young heifer's. Behold the gallant " cock of the walk," strutting erect and 

 bold, the very emblem of courage and chivalry; while his caponized brother 

 creeps along on the outskirts of the dunghill, humble and crest-fallen, looking as 

 if ashamed to be seen, without voice to crow defiance or spirit to resist an insult ! 

 See, again, how this hideous calamity transforms, in moral and physical charac- 

 ter, the wretched human victim of Turkish cruelty. Take away the fountain of 

 that noble passion which, more than any other, leads men to the performance 

 of great actions, and his very fibres and muscles are seen to lose their elasticity ; 

 his throat contracts, and he acquires the physiognomy and the voice of a woman. 

 From being brave and generous, he becomes intellectually feeble, cowardly, mo- 

 rose and cruel. Even his heard ceases to grow ; while, strange to say, on wo- 

 man, this operation, which, according to ancient historians, was by no means 

 uncommon among the Greeks, had quite an opposite effect — since, though it ex- 

 tinguished the sexual appetite, and the bosom disappeared, the voice became 

 harsh and masculine, and the beard appeared on the chin and upper lip. Who 

 would know, a fortiori, or without a series of observations, for instance, that 

 leaving a horse in his natural condition would enlarge his neck and thicken and 

 elongate the hair of his mane and tail ? INow are not all these obvious effects, 

 resulting, as will be admitted on all hands, from the presence or withdrawal of a 



(540) 



