116 Animal Castration 



Causes — The experience of others and my own observation 

 lead me to believe that scrotal hernia of the boar is one condi- 

 tion which can be truthfully laid at the door of hereditary trans- 

 mission in 95 per cent of cases. They are of congenital origin. 

 The internal abdominal ring being open at time of birth and 

 nature fails to close it afterwards. In my own practice I recall 

 one sow in partticular which presented her owner with a bunch 

 of ruptured pigs twice each year. This sow gave birth to large 

 litters and was kept as a brood sow on that account. These litters 

 were usually about equally divided between boar and sow pigs. 

 During the three years that this sow was under my observation 

 each and every boar pig to which she gave birth was "ruptured." 

 Twice each year her owner would come — five miles distance — 

 with the pigs in a market wagon for operation, and strange indeed 

 to say he never lost a pig as a result therefrom. 



89 — "Ruptured" Boar. 



Objects and Indications — All "ruptured" boars should be cas- 

 trated for at least three reasons: (a) Stop their breed in order 

 to lessen the birth of eongenitally "ruptured" pigs, (b) For 



