256 VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



sulphate into the tracts, can not be entirely discarded, but 

 as this treatment affects only the smaller ones and as the 

 patient must first be placed in- the recumbent position to 

 properly apply it, ablation suggests itself as the most sensi- 

 ble remedy. 



Post-Operative Haemorrhage. — There are two kinds of 

 bleeding after castration by the modern methods above 

 recommended: i. primary haemorrhage from the vessels 

 of the scrotum and, 2. secondary haemorrhage from the 

 spermatic artery. 



The first, although never serious, is sometimes the cause 

 of considerable anxiety until its source is definitely deter- 

 mined. This variety of bleeding originates from the ves- 

 sels of the scrotal integuments, especially from the tunica" 

 vaginalis, which in full grown adults and aged horses are 

 by no means small ones. As division of the vessels is made 

 with a sharp knife' and as no provision is made to arre"st the 

 bleeding from them, a copious haemorrhage from this 

 source may occasionally be expected. It is generally no- 

 ticed soon after the horse has been returned to the stall, 

 running in a stream the size of a straw or even larger, and 

 when the patient moves about the blood accumulating in 

 the scrotum may gush out en masse in the most threaten- 

 ing manner imaginable as if coming from the spermatic 

 artery instead of from small insignificant vessels. The dif- 

 ferentiation is soon made, however, by the gradual diminu- 

 tion of the flow. At first the stream reaches the ground un- 

 broken, then it begins to break into drops some distance 

 from the floor and finally drips drop by drop until it ceases 

 entirely. There is no occasion to make any effort to arrest 

 this haemorrhage as its spontaneous arrest may always be 

 depended upon. 



The second, that is, secondary haemorrhage from the 

 spermatic artery, on the contrary, is a serious haemorrhage 

 that may terminate fatally if not controlled. It may occur 

 at any time from twenty minutes to three hours after cas- 

 tration. Haemorrhages occurring later than three hours are 

 rare. The cause of spermatic haemorrhage is inadequate 

 crushing of the artery with an instrument that was too 

 sharp, haemophilia, or disease of the coats of the artery. 

 For a time the crushing holds the blood current but the 

 fortification being insufficient the barrier breaks down and 

 the bleeding begins, and since the spermatic artery is a large 

 one, proceeding directly from the posterior aorta where the 

 blood pressure is high, a very copious flow generally results. 



