142 



BLEEDING AFTER CASTRATION. 



Bleeding from the wouud iu the scrotum and from the little artery 

 in the posterior portion of the spermatic cord always occurs, and in 

 warm weather may appear to be quite free. It scarcely ever lasts, 

 however, over fifteen minutes, and is easily checked by dashing cold 

 water against the part. 



Bleeding from the spermatic artery in the anterior part of the cord 

 may be dangerous wheu due precaution has not been taken to prevent 

 it. In such case the stump of the cord should be sought for and the 

 artery twisted with artery forceps or tied with a silk thread. If the 

 stump can not be found, pledgets of tow wet with tincture of muriate 

 of iron may be stuffed into the canal to favor the formation of clot and 

 the closure of the artery. 



STRANGULATED SPERMATIC CORD. 



If in castration the cord is left too long, so as to hang out of the 

 wound, the skin wound in contracting grasps and strangles it, pre- 

 venting the free return of blood and causing a steadily advancing 

 swelling. In addition the cord becomes adherent to the lips of the 

 wound in the skin, whence it derives an increased supply of blood, 

 and is thereby stimulated to more rapid swelling. The subject walks 

 stiffly, with straddling gait, loses appetite, and has a rapid pulse and 

 high fever. Examination of the wound discloses the partial closure of 

 the skin wound, and the protrusion from its lips of the end of the cord, 

 red, tense, and varying in size from a hazel-nut upward. If there is 

 no material swelling and little protrusion the wound may be enlarged 

 with the knife and the end of the cord broken loose from any connec- 

 tion with the skin, and pushed up inside. If the swelling is larger the 

 mass constitutes a tumor, and must be removed. (See below.) 



SWELLING OF THE SHEATH, PENIS, AND ABDOMEN. 



This occurs in certain unhealthy states of the system, in unhealthy 

 seasons, as the" result of operating without cleansing the sheath and 

 penis, or of keeping the subject in a filthy, impure building, as the 

 result of infecting the wound by hands or instruments bearing septic 

 bacteria, or as the result of i)remature closure of the w^ound, and im- 

 prisonment of matter. 



Pure air and cleanliness of groin and wound are to be secured. 

 Antiseptics, like the mercuric chloride lotion (1 part to 2,000) are to be 

 applied to the i)arts; the wound, if closed, is to be opened anew, any 

 accumulated matter or blood washed out, and the antiseptic liquid 

 freely applied. The most tense or dependent parts of the swelling in 

 sheath or penis, or beneath the belly, should be pricked at intervals 

 of 3 or 4 inches, and to a depth of half an inch, and antiseptics freely 

 used to the surface. Fomentations with warm water may also be used 



