CASTRATION. 571 



fessor Coleman was in the habit of decrying it, on the score 

 of its being occasionally followed by disastrous consequences : 

 an opinion which subsequent experience appears to have 

 strengthened, though there still exist practitioners who give 

 the ligature tlie preference. The reason assigned, why an 

 operation so well adapted for man that no other is ever 

 thought of, should not be found to answer for horses, must 

 be, the anatomical one, of their existing an open communi- 

 cation between the cavities of the scrotum and abdomen in 

 the horse, but not in man : in the one instance, inflam- 

 mation may be set up in the cord with comparative safety 

 to what it can in the other; there being danger of perito- 

 nitis so long as the communication remains open, but none 

 after it is shut. That operation, therefore, which either 

 admits of the scrotal wound closing at once, or else excites 

 such a degree of inflammation, in the first instance, as glues 

 up the abdominal ring, appears better adapted for the horse 

 than one which, like that of ligature, is tardy in bringing on 

 inflammation, and, after all, does so too feebly to produce 

 the adhesive action necessary to seal up the cavity of the 

 abdomen while the suppurative action is going on. 



The Mode op Operating by Ligature is quite simple. 

 The scrotum and coverings of the testicle may be divided 

 with a scalpel, in the manner afore described. The testicle 

 being denuded, is to be given to an assistant, who must 

 make a full and firm grasp of it, in order to counteract the 

 contractions of the cremaster, and stoutly maintain his hold 

 until the operator has divided the vas deferens, which will 

 render his task comparatively easy. The operator will now, 

 with forceps and the point of his knife, or with scissors, ex- 

 pose the artery, which he will find serpentining along the 

 posterior part of the cord. A ligature of strong silk is then 

 introduced underneath it, by means of an aneurismal needle 

 or eyed silver probe ; having tied which, he severs with 

 his scalpel the cord below it, and the operation is ended. 

 One end of the ligature may be cut off" close to the knot ; 

 the other is to be left hanging out of the wound, until the 

 second or third day, after which it may be removed. 



