CASTRATION. 369 



same as is employed for firing, it is generally all the searing that 

 is required ; therefore if the cord does slip through it is of little 

 consequence. This being done, the other testicle is to be re- 

 moved in the same manner. There may be a little bleeding 

 after the horse gets up, but it will stop of itself within half an 

 hour. No kind of dressing is necessary. The horse should be 

 turned into a loose box for a week, and after that he may be 

 put to work if required. The general fault of operators is 

 searing too much, whereby, instead of stopping or preventing 

 bleeding, they produce it, so that the horse bleeds considerably 

 after the operation. If the cord is cut off with the hot firing 

 iron, and not touched with the iron afterwards, it seldom bleeds 

 at all. There is always some degree of swelling afterwards ; but 

 it is never of importance : if it continue, however, after a week, 

 a few punctures should be made with a large lancet, in the 

 lowest part of the swelling, when drops of water will fall from 

 the punctures, and the swelling will gradually disappear. 



[There are several other methods of performing this operation, 

 each of which has its advocates ; that most generally practised 

 on the continent is by means of the caustic clam, and there are 

 two ways of doing this, the covered and the uncovered. 



The caustic clam. — To perform this operation it is necessary 

 to be provided with a pair of clams, and a pair of long pincers to 

 bring their ends together. The clams, says Hurtrel d'Arboval,are 

 made with a piece of old elder five or six inches long and an 

 inch in diameter; this must be split in two and a notch made half 

 an inch from each end suflSciently deep to hold the string. The 

 pith is then taken from the wood, and a vacancy filled with a 

 plaster composed of flour and corrosive sublimate. Mr. Good- 

 win considei's the caustic quite useless, and thus recommends 

 the operation to be performed. — " The horse being secured, and 

 the necessary instruments at hand, the operator, laying hold of 

 the near testicle and drawing it out, sufficiently to render the 

 scrotum tense and secure the cord, makes his incision, through 

 the scrotum and tunica vaginalis, if the operation be the unco- 

 vered one ; the testicle presenting itself is to be cautiously laid 

 hold of by the operator, having given up the knife ; at this 

 moment the twitch should be tightened on the nose to prevent, 

 if possible, the animal struggling during his effort; caution 

 must be used merely to support the testicle, and not to make 

 the same pull on it as Avhen the ci-emaster muscle is acting. 

 Having obtained the testicle sufficiently out of the scrotum to 

 place the clam, the assistant should do this by opening and 

 putting it on the anterior part of the cord. At this part of the 

 operation the Russians generally cut through the vas deferens. 

 When the clam has been placed on the cord, the operator, giving 



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