CASTRATION. 555 



sequence, rendered more liable to disease. Certainly, we 

 obtain by castration the object we have in view, viz., more 

 complete dominion over the animal and manageableness of 

 him. But, in accomplishing this, we lose a great deal com- 

 pared to the little we gain ; — so much, indeed, that it might 

 fairly become a national question, why we, the same as 

 foreign nations, cannot, for certain purposes and in certain 

 situations, contrive to manage and do our work with entire 

 horses.^ 



To reduce the stone-horse, in point of nature, down to 

 the gelding, it is not absolutely necessary to extract the 

 testicles : any operation that will disorganize or destroy the 

 functions of the gland, or that will even intercept the conduit 

 of semen from it, will be attended with like effects, in 

 the course of time, as so speedily follow on actual castration. 

 A knowledge of this fact it is which has led to the practices 

 of bruising the testicles, excising the epidydimes or portions 

 of the spermatic duct, &c. The objections to such alterna- 

 tives for castration are — that many of them create quite as 

 much pain and irritation, and evil effect, as gelding itself 

 does — some even more; and that none of them so speedily 

 and so completely accomplish the object we have in view as 

 the absolute abstraction of the testicles. 



Concerning the best age for castration, there is some 

 difference of opinion, arising, in a great measure, from 

 viewing the subject through different media. The man who 

 confines his views to the simplicity and safety of the opera- 

 tion, rightly argues, the earlier it is performed the better. 

 Mr. Brettargh, V.S., Preston, in a letter to me, says, 

 "Every spring since I left you at the College I have 



' Castration has a strange effect. It emasculates man, beast, and bird, and 

 brings them to a near resemblance to the other sex. Eunuchs have smooth and 

 beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Wethers have small horns, like ewes, and 

 oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, like cows ; but bulls 

 have short straight horns, and though they mutter and grumble in a deep 

 tremulous voice, yet they low in a shrill high key. Capons have small combs 

 and gills, and look like pullets about the head; they walk without any parade, 

 and hover on the chickens like the hen. Barrow hogs have likewise small tusks, 

 like sows. (* Veterinarian,' vol. xx, p. 118.) 



