CASTRATION. 585 



spermatic cords is not always a proceeding unattended with danger, some 

 having lost within the space of a few hours as much as from two to four 

 gallons of blood. 2dly, That such a procedure appeared less perilous in 

 dogs. 3dly, That in small dogs, cats, young boars, lambs, and goats, the 

 hemorrhage was of hardly any amount. 



If the improbability of the animal bleeding to death be 

 great even when simple excision is practised and no means 

 are taken to seal or secure the vessels, how much greater 

 must this be when but partial hemorrhage ensues from one 

 or other of these styptic measures having failed ! 1 never 

 lieard of a horse bleeding to death after castration by cau- 

 terization ; and after the use of pressure-clams, providing 

 the clams be not removed, or the horse do not tear them 

 off, before the testicles slough away, or they be not taken 

 off in a manner to lacerate or unglue the sealed extremity 

 of tl>e cord, there can be none. In case there should be 

 any small stream of hemorrhage after the removal of the 

 clams, it is in general very easy to catch the bleeding orifice 

 with forceps or tenaculum, and pass a simple ligature around 

 it ; or, if it be difficult to do this, or there be two or three 

 places bleeding, the clams may be put on again. There is 

 no difficulty so long as the end of the cord is visible ; it is 

 when the bleeding cord has been shortened by excision or 

 cauterization, or by the clams being torn off to that degree 

 that it subsequently becomes retracted and drawn up into 

 the vaginal sheath, that the case turns out embarrassing. 

 In this predicament, 'the promptest and simplest remedy we 

 can adopt is dashing buckets of icg'-cold water upon tlie * 

 sheath ; the surest, getting hold, if possible, of the end of 

 the cord with a pair of long and bowed forceps, and drawing 

 it down, and putting a ligature around it, or applying the 

 cautery to it: not being likely, however, to effect this, unless 

 the horse be cast — which may or may not be advisable or 

 convenient — should the cold affusion fail, we may try if we 

 can phig the bleeding side of the scrotum with tow dipped 

 in a solution of ahmi, and made up into hard pellets. Even 

 this, however, according to D'Arboval, may prove objection- 

 able, from the blood liaving been known to ascend and enter 



