SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 25l 



pressed and deprived of circulation and life. He further informs 

 us that he has operated in six cases in succession with tie same 

 effect, without any escharotic matter whatever. An experimental 

 case of Mr. Percivall's terminated fatally. By the use of caustic 

 the cord was greatly inflamed, as high as the ring, and which, 

 unquestionably, produced the unfortunate result. 



' The covered operation,' continues Mr. Goodwin, ' is the one 

 that I am about to advocate, and which differs only insomuch that 

 the scrotum and dartos muscle must be cautiously cut through, 

 without dividing the tunica vaginalis. It was Monsieur Berger 

 who was accidentally at my house when I was about to castrate a 

 horse, and who, on my saying that I should probably do it with 

 the cautery, expressed his surprise that I should perform the oper- 

 ation in any other way than on the plan generally approved of 

 in France. Being a stranger to it, he kindly consented to preside 

 at the operation, and, after seeing him perform on the near tes- 

 ticle, I did the same on the right, but, of course, not with the same 

 facility. After opening the scrotum, and dissecting through the 

 dartos, which is very readily done by passing the knife lightly over 

 its fibers, the testicle and its covering, the tunica vaginalis, must 

 be taken in the right hand, while the left should be employed in 

 pushing back the scrotum from its attachments ; and, having your 

 assistant ready, as before, with the clam, it must be placed well 

 above the epididymis, and greater pressure is, of course, necessary, 

 as the vaginal covering is included in the clam.' 



Mr. Goodwin further observes that in Russia he has seen hun- 

 dreds of horses operated on, even after the human fashion, with 

 safety ; and,- he remarks, it certainly produces less pain, the animal 

 loses less flesh and condition, and is sooner recovered than when 

 operated on by the actual cautery. 



Castration by ligature is a painful, barbarous, and very danger- 

 ous practice, and consists in inclosing the testicles and scrotum 

 within ligatures, until mortification occurs, and they drop off. It 

 is practiced by some breeders on their young colts, but it is always 

 hazardous and disgracefully cruel. The substance of the testicle, 

 in some countries, is also broken down, either by rubbing or other- 

 wise by pressure between two hard bodies. This is practiced in 

 Algiers, instead of excision, and tetanus is a frequent consequence 

 of it. In Portugal they twist round the testicle, and thus stop the 

 circulation of the gland. Division of the vas deferens has l.oen 



