MENTAL DIFFERENCE AND DISORDER. 201 



without a remarkable change in its mental character, and it 

 is in order to such a change that the operation is performed. 

 There is a loss of objectionable sexual furiosity or excite- 

 ment of the nature perhaps of erotomania, and this is what 

 the operator has immediately and only in view. But there is 

 apt to be a loss also of all the characteristic mental attributes 

 of the male animal. In short the animal is too apt to be- 

 come feminine in more than one sense, and to an extent 

 that was not contemplated and that is not desirable. In the 

 ' entire ' horse there is a tendency to mental, nervous and 

 muscular exaltation or excitement : the animal is apt to be 

 impetuous, to give way to its passions, to develop vicious or 

 dangerous habits. In other words, it is savage, vicious, ex- 

 citable, irritable, destructive and violent, and hence trouble- 

 some or dangerous to manage. The object of castration is to 

 moderate impetuosity, calm the passions, eradicate vice, tame 

 and subdue the animal, thereby rendering it more docile and 

 submissive to man's service or requirements. 



Even when the operation is properly performed, it is not 

 always successful in bringing about the desired improvement 

 of character, while there is always a risk of deterioration 

 instead of improvement. No doubt ardour or impetuosity 

 may be diminished, but along therewith, there is only too 

 apt to result a diminution of physical strength and moral 

 courage, while there may be a general blunting of the 

 animal's susceptibilities. When, on the other hand, the 

 operation is imperfectly or improperly performed, the effects 

 may be most untoward, including, for instance, the develop- 

 ment of dangerous viciousness (Pierquin) . 



In the dog according to Fleming castration produces a 

 change in its ordinary affections : disobedience, non-amena- 

 bility to punishment, a desire for seclusion, refusal of food, 

 irritability, moroseness, and biting ; that is to say, the result 

 is altogether bad. And this has to be noted in connection 

 therewith, that these effects of a mere surgical operation have 

 sometimes been ascribed to the popularly dreaded rabies. 

 According to Pierquin, the operation in question in the dog 

 is apt to induce melancholia or imbecility of mind, or both, 

 while it begets unfitness for work by reason of developing 



