580 CASTRATION BY TORSION. 
than even the most skilful veterinary surgeon could have 
done it ; while the brachial blood-vessels were left hanging 
curled up underneath the integument, without having given 
issue to hardly any blood. The sheep was consigned to the 
butchery; but the circumstance left engraved upon my mind 
an observation not to be forgotten. 
In 1834 I was appointed aide- Vet erinaire to the 2d Carabi- 
neers ; and I learnt that a Polish castrator was practising at 
Paris castration by torsion ; but that horses so operated on 
were found to be subject to extensive swellings, champignons , 
and fistula, and other affections of the spermatic cord. These 
accidents, it appeared to me, were the result of an incomplete 
compression of the cord at the moment of employment of the 
torsion. This, it seemed to me, admitted easily of remedy ; 
but a more embarrassing question remained, which was that 
of haemorrhage, which might probably more readily ensue if 
one came to rupture, in the torsion, any part of the cord 
instead of destroying it partially to a greater or less extent, 
as must be the case in the manipulations of the Polish gelder. 
Recalling to mind the history of my sheep, how the scapular 
and humoral vessels, so near the heart, had been completely 
obliterated by the operation of the wolf on one side, and the 
sheep on the other; and being no longer ignorant of the 
beautiful experiments of Dr. Amussat on the torsion of 
arteries, I thought it probable I might arrive at the practice 
of castration without the employment of either clams or 
ligature, or heated iron, and avoid the accidents which some- 
times happened to the Polish gelder, by limiting the torsion 
along the spermatic cord, to a particular part of its length 
without variation, through the means of some solid instrument. 
But on all this, actual practice can alone decide, and it was 
not long before an opportunity offered for me to do so. 
In May 1835, while detached from my regiment with 
about 100 young horses at grass, I w T as requested by M. 
Bourdin, the owner of the farm, to castrate for him a young 
horse of his own breeding, 4 years old, intended to ride and 
drive for himself. I did not conceal from him that it was my 
intention to operate upon his horse by a method in w r hich I 
had the greatest confidence, though as yet the proceeding 
was a novel one. The complete success of this first 
operation, induced me, a few days afterwards, to perform the 
same on tw o other stout cart-horses, one 9 years of age, the 
other 12; and these w ere the first fruits of the excellence and 
superiority of this mode of proceeding. 
Individual practice and experience, however, are insufficient 
to carry a point of this kind. The eyes of all the world must 
