CASTRATION. 189 



vanced age. In the majority of cases, no aflei ^^eatmem 

 will be necessary, except that the animal should be shel- 

 tered from intense heat, and more particularly from wet/' 



Moderate exercise taken in grazing will be preferable to 

 perfect inaction. The old method of pinning the scrotum 

 (testicle bag) on either side, and cutting off the testicles, — 

 preventing bleeding by a temporary compression of tho 

 vassels while they are seared with a hot iron, — must be 

 abandoned ; and there is no necessity for this extra pain 

 when the spermatic cord, (the blood vessels, and the nerve) 

 is compressed between two pieces of wood, as tightly as in 

 a vice, and there left till the following day, or until the 

 testicle drops off. 



Another method of castration is by torsion. An incision 

 IS made into the scrotum, and the vas deferens is exposed 

 and divided. The artery is then seized with a pair of 

 forceps contrived for the purpose, and twisted six or seven 

 times around. It retracts without untwisting the coils, and 

 the bleeding ceases ; the testicle is removed, and there is no 

 sloughing, or danger. The most painful part of the opera- 

 tion, that with the firing iron or the clamp, is avoided, 

 and the wound readily heals. 



Mr. Spooner, the editor of Youatt's works, recommends 

 the use of chloroform, and says that he has performed the 

 operation in seven minutes, without any pain to the 

 animal. 



DOCKING AND NICKING. 



These barbarous methods of depriving the horse of hb 

 natural form and appearance, in order to make him con- 

 form to the fashion of the time, is, fortunately, very fast 

 going into disuse. If the tail of the horse were given to 

 iiim for no good purpose, and if it were not a design of 

 nature that he should have the power of moving it ford' 



