CASTRATION. 583 



and this danger is much enhanced by the concomitant en- 

 gorgement of one or both cords. 



Suppuration, in reference to the operation by pressure- 

 clams, according to the same accurate observer, is announced 

 l)y some fulness of the lips of the wounds, accompanied by 

 febrile disorder, commencing on the second or third day, 

 reaching its height on the fourth, and continuing until the 

 suppurative process is completely established. At first a 

 yellow serous issue is observed, which afterwards turns white, 

 and at last assumes all the characters of pus. This laudable 

 secretion, though its course may be interrupted by a variety 

 of circumstances, continues augmenting up to the tenth or 

 twelfth day, after which it slowly or quickly diminishes, 

 sometimes not ceasing before the twenty-fourth or thirtieth 

 day. So that often at the end of a month cicatrization is 

 not complete, there still remaining some discharge. 



The following are the observations of the late Mr. John 

 Field, in regard to suppuration. 



"A grey horse castrated (with the clams) 23d October, 

 1826, had no regular purulent discharge, until the 29th; 

 only a serous exudation existing previously to that. 



'' A black colt castrated with sticks (clams) 19th October, 

 and, fourteen hours after, the sticks were removed. Three 

 hours after this, pulse 42. 27th October, we first noticed 

 jmrulent discharge. Particular attention was paid to dis- 

 cover at what period this took place. 



" 18th October, 1826. — The hair was sliorn off a place in 

 the skin, by the side of the right nasal bone. Caustic 

 potash was rubbed in partly through the skin. 30th Octo- 

 ber, first commenced separating at the lowest part.^' 



The ABNORMAL or INAUSPICIOUS Consequences of castra- 

 tion include one which is hardly ever noticed, or peihaps 

 little thought of, viz. the admission of air into the abdomen : 

 one very properly mentioned by D^Arboval as liable to occur 

 in every operation save the '' covered" one, and often, as he 

 says, demonstrable at the time, by the gurgling in the 

 sheath audible on inspiration and expiration. Its presence 

 has never appeared to do harm. 



