COMPLICATIONS AFTER CASTRATION. 237 



7. Abscess formation in or about the scrotum results from retention 

 of discharge, from the primary incision being made at the wrong point, 

 or being of too small size. The decomposing discharge leads to sup- 

 purative inflammation in the connective tissue and finally to abscess 

 formation. In this case the swelling is more marked at the spot where 

 the abscess will finall}' break, and is often hemispherical in shape. 

 Immediately such symptoms are noted, the wound must be examined, 

 and the abscess cavity freely exposed or a counter-opening made. 

 Occasionally it is advantageous to insert a drainage-tube. 



Cryptorchidism and the Castration of Cryptorchids. 



In the horse and dog, less frequently in other species, the testicles 

 are sometimes either absent or in a state of rudimentary development. 

 Leisering found the testicles of a stallion, which had ineffectually 

 covered forty mares, almost normal in size, but flabb}- in texture, 

 wanting the tense normal character. Their arteries were distended, 

 their connecti\'e tissue thickened, the semen ^^•atery, transparent, and 

 containing many round-cells, but onl_v isolated spermatozoa. Testicles 

 which have been retained in the abdominal cavit)' often show similar 

 appearances. This condition (retentio testis) is not infrequent in 

 stallions of the coarse, heavy variety, but is also seen in other animals. 

 Leisering and Gurlt found the testicles of a dog still in the abdominal 

 cavity ; Preusser has seen the same thing in pigs, and Kaiser in bulls. 

 Imminger considers the cryptorchid condition as common in bulls as 

 in horses, and he was able to establish the hereditary character of the 

 condition in certain cases. This abnormality is termed retentio abdo- 

 minalis when the testicle lies near the upper wall of the abdomen, 

 retentio iliaca when it is near the inner abdominal ring, and retentio 

 inguinalis when it is within the inguinal canal. The apparent absence 

 of one or both testicles thus produced is termed monorchismus or 

 cryptorchismus. During the first few months of life in the foal the 

 testicles certainly lie in the inguinal canal, but towards the end of the 

 first year they again descend into the scrotum. 



Gurlt saw a horse in which the testicles occupied a very rare 

 position, viz. in contact with, and adherent to, the diaphragm. Some- 

 times they lie outside the abdominal cavity, but not in the scrotum 

 (ectopia of the testicle) ; thus the testicles have been found below the 

 diaphragm or in the crural canal : the first condition is termed ectopia 

 abdominalis, the latter ectopia cruralis. In dogs Moller has found one 

 or both testicles lying beneath the skin next the glans penis ; in a bull,, 

 one testicle was met with in the subcutis of the flank. 



