BOOK VII. X. 8-xii. I 



medicinal effect and, being swallowed, stops intestinal 

 swelling. 



XL Two seasons are observed for castrating the 

 pig, spring and autumn. There are two methods of 

 can-ying out this operation. The first, which we 

 have already described, consists of making two 

 incisions and squeezing out a testicle through each 

 of them. The other is more spectacular but more 

 dangerous ; but I will not pass it over in silence. 

 When you have opened up with the knife and drawn 2 

 out one of the male organs,* insert a lancet through 

 the wound that has been made ; then cut the middle 

 skin, as it were, which intervenes between the two 

 genital members, and with your bent fingers draw 

 out the other testicle also ; the result will be that 

 there will be only one scar after the application of the 

 other remedies which we have described earlier. 

 But there is one point, which concerns the religious 

 scruples of the head of the family, ** and which I have 3 

 thought that I ought not to pass over in silence, 

 namely, that there are some breeding-sows which 

 devour their young. When this happens, it is not 

 regarded as a prodigy ; for pigs, of all farm-animals, 

 are the least able to endure hunger, and sometimes 

 feel such need of food that they consume not only 

 the offspring of other sows, if they are allowed to do 

 so, but also their own young. 



XII. I have now, unless I am mistaken, dealt in Dogs, 

 sufficient detail with animals used for ploughing and 

 other cattle and with the herdsmen who are employed 

 to look after and watch over flocks of four-footed 

 animals at home and out of doors with all the resources 

 of human intelligence. Now, as I promised in the 

 earlier part of my treatise, I will speak of the 



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