52 ANIMAL CASTBATION. 



tion is formed of waxed silk ; sometimes of strong 

 twine, as fisliiiig line, for example ; or, as more 

 recentljr introduced in surgery in the removal of liv- 

 ing growths and tumors, an elastic cord. 



Ligation of the cord and its encclojics. — This process 

 is principally used upon small animals, although, 

 since the elastic cord has been brought into use, a 

 few attempts have been made to make it apjilicable 

 to the larger kinds. The experiments, however 

 have been as yet so few, and the results so unsatis- 

 factory, and in so many cases fatal, that it can scarcely 

 be recommended, except for small subjects. The ap- 

 plication of this is very simple. It consists, after 

 securing the patient, in bringing the testicles as far 

 down into the scrotum as may Ije thought needful, 

 and after ap])l3'ing the ligature two or three times 

 around the cord, a short distance above them (Fig. 

 14), slowly and steadily tightening it until a suf- 

 ficient amount of force has been employed to close 

 the calibre of the blood vessel and cut off the circu- 

 lation from the parts situated below the point of li- 

 gation. This mode of operating has, in our hands, 

 jjrovecl very successful in small animals, iind when 

 the elastic ligature has been used. Mortification has 

 taken place in a few days, the testicles sloA\ly detach- 

 ing themselves at the point of ligature, and when 

 falling off leaving but a verj- small supcrhcial, cuta- 

 neous scab, and healing in a short time. 



Under this chapter we think well to mention a new 

 mode of operHtion invented and even recently pat- 

 ented in Europe and in the United States, by a 



