PRACTICAL CRYPTORCHID CASTRATION 73 



had occasion to use it in cryptorchids and have 

 repeatedly used it in spaying mares. The time- 

 honored pronunciamento, that it is fatal to 

 open the abdominal cavity of the horse, belongs 

 to the pre-Listerian era and has Kttle bearing 

 on modern aseptic surgery. Successful lapa- 

 rotomy in the equine depends merely upon con- 

 trolling the concomitant infection of the peri- 

 toneum, aside from which, it presents no serious 

 difficulty. 



Young patients are much more satisfactory to 

 operate upon than older ones. One should, in 

 studying the operation, select untouched year- 

 lings or two-year-olds for his first patients, the 

 yearlings being preferable to the two-year-olds. 



Complicating conditions in young patients are 

 exceedingly rare; in older ones they are much 

 more common. Adhesions, hyperplastic and 

 cystic testicles and the partially descended and 

 strangulated testicles are all results of age. Older 

 animals are more difficult to confine properly and 

 being more liable to present complicating con- 

 ditions are more apt to suffer from the accidents 

 of the operation. 



