SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 25) 
pressed and deprived of circulation and life. He further informs 
us that he has operated in six cases in succession with tie same 
effect, without any escharotic matter whatever. An experimental 
case of Mr. Percivall’s terminated fatally. By the use of caustio 
the vord was greatly inflamed, as high as the ring, and which, 
unquestionably, produced the unfortunate result. 
‘The covered operation,’ continues Mr. Goodwin, ‘is the one 
that I am about to advocate, and which differs only insomuch that 
the scrotum and dartos muscle must be cautiously cut through, 
without dividing the tunica vaginalis. It was Monsieur Berger 
who was accidentally at my house when I was about to castrate a 
horse, and who, on my saying that I should probably do it with 
the cautery, expressed his surprise that I should perform the oper- 
ation in any other way than on the plan generally approved of 
in France. Being a stranger to it, he kindly consented to preside 
at the operation, and, after seeing him perform on the near tea 
ticle, I did the same on the right, but, of course, not with the same 
facility. After opening the scrotum, and dissecting through the 
dartos, which is very readily done by passing the knife lightly over 
its fibers, the testicle and its covering, the tunica vaginalis, must 
be taken in the right hand, while the left should be employed in 
pushing back the scrotum from its attachments; and, having your 
assistant ready, as before, with the clam, it must be placed well 
above the epididymis, and greater pressure is, of course, necessary, 
as the vaginal covering is included in the clam.’ 
Mr. Goodwin further observes that in Russia he has seen hun- 
dreds of horses operated on, even after the human fashion, with 
safety ; and, he remarks, it certainly produces less pain, the animal 
loses less flesh and condition, and is sooner recovered than when 
operated on by the actual cautery. 
Castration by ligature is a painful, barbarous, and very danger- 
ous practice, and consists in inclosing the testicles and scrotum 
within ligatures, until mortification occurs, and they drop off. It 
is practiced by some breeders on their young colts, but it is always 
hazardous and disgracefully cruel. The substance of the testicle, 
in some countries, is also broken down, either by rubbing or other- 
wise by pressure between two hard bodies. This is practiced in 
Algiers, instead of excision, and tetanus is a frequent consequenos 
of it. In Portugal they twist round the testicle, and thus stop the 
circulation of the gland. Division of the vas defereus hae been 
