DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 169 - 
when the struggle and retraction have ceased, the knife is inserted 
through the cord, between its anterior and posterior portions, and the 
latter, the one which the muscle retracts, is cut completely through. 
The testicle will now hang limp, and there is no longer any tendency 
to retraction. It should be pulled down until it will no longer hang 
loose below the wound and the clamps applied around the still at- 
tached portion of the cord, close up to the skin. The clamps, which 
may be made of any tough wood, are grooved along the center of the 
surfaces opposed to each other, thereby fulfilling two important in- 
dications—(a) enabling the clamps to hold more securely and (JU) 
providing for the application of an antiseptic to the cord. For this 
purpose a dram of sulphate of copper may be mixed with an ounce 
of vaseline and pressed into the groove in the face of each clamp. 
In applying the clamp over the cord it should be drawn so close with 
pincers as to press out all blood from the compressed cord and de- 
stroy its vitality, and the cord applied upon the compressing clamps 
should be so hard-twined that it will not stretch later and slacken the 
hold. When the clamp has been fixed the testicle is cut off one-half 
to 1 inch below it, and the clamp may be left thus for 24 hours; then, 
by cutting the cord around one end of the clamp, the latter may be 
opened and the stump liberated without any danger of bleeding. 
Should the stump hang out of the wound it should be pushed inside 
with the finger and left there. The wound should begin to discharge 
white matter on the second day in hot weather or the third in cold, 
and from that time a good recovery may be expected. 
The young horse suffers less from castration than the old, and very 
rarely perishes. Good health in the subject is all important. Castra- 
tion should never be attempted during the prevalence of strangles, 
influenza, catarrhal fever, contagious pleurisy, bronchitis, pneumonia, 
purpura hemorrhagica, or other specific disease, nor on subjects that 
have been kept in close, ill-ventilated, filthy buildings, where the 
system is liable to have been charged with putrid bacteria or other 
’ products. Warm weather is to be preferred to cold, but the fly time 
should be avoided or the flies kept at a distance by the application of 
a watery solution of tar, carbolic acid, or camphor to the wound, 
CASTRATION OF CRYPTORCHIDS (RIDGLINGS). 
This is the removal of a testicle or testicles that have failed to 
descend into the scrotum, but have been detained in the inguinal 
canal or inside the abdomen. The manipulation requires an accurate 
anatomical knowledge of the parts, and special skill, experience, and 
manual dexterity, and can not be made clear to the unprofessional 
mind in a short description. It consists, however, in the discovery 
and removal of the missing gland by exploring through the natural 
channel (the inguinal canal), or, in case it is absent, through the in- 
