DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 147 



death, in fatal cases, jet the sexual desire does not seem to fail. A 

 stallion without sense to eat, except when food was put in his mouth, 

 would still neigh and seek to follow mares. In mild cases an apparent 

 recover}^ may ensue, and through such animals the disease is propa- 

 gated to new localities to be roused into activity and extension under 

 the stimulus of service. The diseased nerve centers are the seat of 

 cryptogamic growths. (Thannhoffer.) 



Treatment of the malady has proved eminently unsatisf actor}-. It 

 belongs to the purely contagious diseases, and should be stamped out 

 b}- the remorseless slaughter or castration of every horse or mare that 

 has had sexual congress with a diseased animal. 



CASTRATION OF STALLIONS. 



This is usually done at one j^ear old, but may be accomplished at a 

 few weeks old at the expense of an imperfect development of the 

 fore parts. The simplicity and safety of the operation are greatest in 

 the young. The delay till two, three, or four years old will secure a 

 better development and carriage of the fore parts. The essential 

 part of castration is the safe removal or destruction of the testicle 

 and the arrest or prevention of bleeding from the spermatic artery 

 found in the anterior part of the cord. Into the many methods of 

 accomplishing this limited space forbids us to enter here, so that the 

 method most commonly adopted, castration by clamps, will^alone be 

 noticed. The animal having been thrown on his left side, and the 

 right hind foot drawn up on the shoulder, the exposed scrotum, 

 penis, and sheath are washed with soap and w ater, any concretion of 

 sebum being carefulh^ removed from the bilocular cavity in the end 

 of the penis. The left spermatic cord, just above the testicle, is now 

 seized in the left hand, so as to render the skin tense over the stone, 

 and the right hand, armed with the knife, makes an incision from 

 before backward, about three-fourths of an inch from and parallel to 

 the median line betAveen the thighs, deep enough to expose the testicle 

 and long enough to allow that organ to start out through the skin. 

 At the moment of making this incision the left hand must grasp the 

 cord very firmly, otherwise the sudden retraction of the testicle by 

 the cremaster muscle tsv%j draw it out of the hand and upwards 

 tlirough the canal and even into the abdomen. In a few seconds, 

 when the struggle and retraction have ceased, the knife is inserted 

 through the cord, between its anterior and posterior portions, and the 

 latter, the one which the muscle retracts, is cut completely through. 

 The testicle will now hang limp, and there is no longer any tendency 

 to retraction. It should be pulled down until it will no longer hang 

 loose below the wound and the clamps applied around the still attached 

 portion of the cord, close up to the skin. The clamps, which may be 

 made of any tough wood, are grooved along the center of the surfaces 



