DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 387 



lotion (acetate of lead two drachms, extract of belladonna 

 two drachms, and water one quart) upon soft rags or cotton 

 wool, kept in contact with the part by a suspensory bandage. 

 This bandage, of great value for support, may be made 

 nearly triangular and tied to a girth around the loins and to 

 the upper part of the same surcingle by two bands carried 

 backward and upward between the thighs. In severe cases 

 scarifications one-fourth inch deep serve to relieve vascular 

 tension. When abscess is threatened its formation may be 

 favored by warm fomentations or poultices, and on the oc- 

 currence of fluctuation the knife may be employed to give 

 free escape to the pus. The resulting cavity may be injected 

 daily with a weak carbolic-acid lotion, or salol may be intro- 

 duced. The same agents may be used on a gland threatened 

 with gangrene, but its prompt removal by castration is to be 

 preferred, antiseptics being applied freely to the resulting 

 cavity. 



SARCOCELE. 



This is an enlarged and indurated condition of the gland 

 resulting from chronic inflammation, though it is often asso- 

 ciated with a specific deposit like glanders. In this condition 

 the natural structure of the gland has given place to em- 

 bryonal tissue (small, round cells, with a few fibrous bundles), 

 and its restoration to health is very improbable. Apart from 

 active inflammation, it may increase very slowly. The dis- 

 eased testicle is enlarged, firm, non-elastic and comparatively 

 insensible. The skin of the scrotum is tense, and it may be 

 oedematous (pitting on pressure), as are the deeper envelopes 

 and spermatic cord. If liquid is present in the sack the 

 symptoms are masked somewhat. As it increases it causes an 

 awkward, straddling, dragging movement of the hind limbs, 

 or lameness on the affected side. The spermatic cord often 

 increases at the same time with the testicle, and the inguinal 

 ring being thereby stretched and enlarged a portion of in- 

 testine may escape into the sack, complicating the disease 

 with hernia. 



The only rational and effective treatment is castration, 

 and even this may not succeed when the disease is specific 

 (glanders, tuberculosis). 



