584 DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



Hemorrhage, either unavoidable or from mismanage- 

 ment, may occur after any of the operations ; though it 

 rarely does to an amount to excite apprehension ; and when 

 alarm has arisen, there are still so many chances in favour 

 of its stopping that we need be in no hurry about recasting 

 the horse, or taking any desperate measures. Bleeding 

 from a single spermatic artery — and it is not likely blood 

 is flowing from both — though left without any measures 

 whatever being taken to staunch the hemorrhage, is exceeding 

 unlikely to proceed to any dangerous length. Professor 

 Coleman^s experiment warrants this assertion. To be sure, 

 his case was one of arrachement ; but then it was that of an 

 old stallion : a young one would have had a still better 

 chance of surviving. 



Lafosse could not conceive why people took so much pains about castra- 

 tion. He assures us he has cut many horses without either cautery or 

 ligature, and they perfectly recovered : it is true, a good deal of hemor- 

 rhage followed, but this was in no case mortal, at least that he heard of. 

 Matheron excised both the testicles of a glandered horse. The animal 

 bled copiously for four hours, when he fell from weakness, and sank into 

 a state of stupor ; in which he lay six hours, and then recovered sufficiently 

 to eat. On the fifth day after, he was destroyed, being in a fair way of 

 recovery. Mathia performed the same experiment at Turin, in presence 

 of Toffia, and the horse recovered. Excision of the testicles of a young 

 vigorous horse, whose value was guaranteed, was also exhibited at the 

 Alfort School, in the presence of the Professors Gilbert and Barruel ; an 

 account of which will be found in the Report of the Public Session held 

 at the School on 12th Nov. 1815. In several countries in Europe castra- 

 tion is accomplished simply by laying open the scrotum and tearing out 

 the testicles : the spermatic vessels are left unsecured and unsealed, and 

 yet there is no dangerous hemorrhage ; but the acute pains which lacera- 

 tion of the nerves occasion even produce so much inflammation and en- 

 irorcement that it would be better to cut than to tear the cord. — Bar- 

 thelemy, desirous of setting the question beyond the pale of doubt, cut 

 both spermatic cords, just above the epididymes, in five horses intended 

 for dissection. One had risen a quarter of an hour before bleeding com- 

 menced. Another lost nearly a quart of blood. A third lost but a few 

 ounces. It was observed that the hemorrhage continued longest in those 

 that were weakest. Gohicr has likewise made sonic similar experiments 

 not on horses only, but on other animals, from which he has drawn three con- 

 clusions: — 1st, That the castration of solipedes by simple excision of the 



