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ment indemr-ity for the animals so destroyed or castrated, and a severe 

 penalty for putting any such animal to breeding, would serve as effectual 

 accessory resorts. 



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 accomplish- 

 ing 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. At 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 retraction 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 im- 

 portant indications, (a) enabling the clamps to hold more securely and 

 (b) providing for the application of an antiseptic to the cord. For this 

 purpose a dram of sulphate of copper may be mixed with an ounce of 

 lard and pressed into the groove in the face of each clamp. In apply- 

 ing the clamp over the cord it should be drawn so close with pincers as 

 to press out all blood from the compressed cord and destroy its vitality, 

 and the cord applied upon the compressing clamps should be so hard- 

 twined that it will not stretch Later and slacken the hold. When the 

 clamp has been fixed the testicle is cut off one-half to 1 inch below it, 



