CASTRATION OF STALLIONS. 147 



activity and extension under the stimulus of service. The diseased 

 nerve centers are the seat of cryptogamic growths. (Thannhoffer.) 



Treatment of the mahidy has proved eminently unsatisfactory. It 

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

 by 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 year 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 water, any concretion of 



sebum being carefully 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 between the thighs, deep enough to expose the testicle 



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



xVt 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 may draw it out of the hand and upwards 



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



when the struggle and retracticm 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 



opposed to each other, thereby fulfilling two important indications — 



{a) enabling the clamps to hold more securely and {}>) providing for 



the application of an antiseptic to the cord. For this puri)ose a dram 



of sulphate of copper may be mixed with an ounce of vaseline and 



