304 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



feated. The insertion of the ring by means of a trocar and canula is 

 preferable, as the method is not open to this objection. 



For some years I have used a little instrument devised by myself 

 which can be made by any worker in metal, consisting of a steel point 

 riveted into a short canula made to fit on one end of the ring while 

 open. (Plate xxviu, Fig. 11.) When attached to the ring it is easily 

 and quickly passed through the septum, the half of the ring following 

 as a matter of course. It can then be removed, and the ends of the 

 ring brought together and fastened by means of the screw for that pur- 

 pose. By this means any animal can readily be ringed by anyone in 

 less time than it takes to describe the process; Avhereas, by any other 

 method which necessitates first puncturing or piercing the septum and 

 subsequently introducing the ring, the operation is, even when the 

 animal's struggles do not complicate matters, necessarily rendered 

 tedious and uncertain by the fact that the openings through the skin 

 and cartilage are not in apposition. 



DEHORNING. 



In this and other countries for some years past a heated controversy 

 has from time to time been carried on not only as to the advisability of 

 dehorning, but also as to the propriety of the proceeding. The advo- 

 cates of wholesale removal of horns in many cases exaggerate alike the 

 necessity and the advantages accruing from the practice; on the other 

 hand, their opponents are backed by the ultra humanitarian who stig- 

 matizes the operation as barbarous, or worse. In some countries these 

 views are upheld even by courts of law whose legal acumen is able to 

 detect in the procedure grave cruelty to animals. 



In this country owners are left to decide matters of this sort for them- 

 selves, but a work of this kind would hardly be complete without some 

 expression of an opinion on the subject which might be helpful to the 

 dubious when the matter comes up for decision. Justly, then, does the 

 operation amount to cruelty ? 



I answer distinctly, it does not. Cruelty to animals is defined as the 

 infliction of unnecessary paiu. Now, the operation of dehorning causes 

 pain certainly, as all surgical operations necessarily do, but it is not by 

 any means more painful than many other operations (notably castra- 

 tion), to which we regularly subject individual animals without a second 

 thought. Moreover, the pain is transient as well as slight, and as a 

 matter of fact pales into insignificance before the severe and lasting 

 torture inflicted as a matter of every-day occurrence by animals upon 

 each other when left to wear in confinement their weapons of offense, 

 which, although doubtless of utility in a wild state are in a state of 

 domesticity a menace to their companions and a dangerous encumbrance 

 to themselves. 



The matter has acquired enhanced importance from the fact that, 

 owing to the strenuous efforts made by the U. S. Department of Agri- 



