SPAYING OR CASTRATION OF COWS. 233 
encounter all the accidents and diseases attendant on gesta- 
tion and parturition, &c. 
1. The operation prolongs the milking period, and aug- 
ments the annual return from such production. 
In order to prove this assertion, I may repeat what has 
been before stated by my predecessors, based upon a series 
of facts whose authenticity is guaranteed ; and afterwards, I 
may cite such facts as have occurred under my own cogni- 
zance, based upon certificates of cowkeepers, with the legalisa- 
tion of administrative authority; and, lastly, I may establish 
comparisons between the products of cows not castrated and 
cows that have undergone the operation. 
From M. Levrat, of Lausanne, we learn that spayed cows 
yield annually , for the first two or three years, from a fourth 
to a third more milk than they were in the habit of giving 
before the performance of the operation. And further trials 
convince M. Levrat, that the increase cannot be estimated 
at less than one third of the annual amount. 
M. Regire, of Bourdeaux, asserts, that in five cases he 
experimented on, the cows yielded at least double the quantity 
they did before the operation. 
And lastly, M. Morin, veterinarian at the National Depot 
of Langouet, asserts that a cow spayed thirty or forty days 
after calving, or at the time that she is giving most milk, 
continues to yield, if not for the remainder of her life at least 
for many years, the same large quantity of milk, and some- 
times more than she gave at the moment of performance of 
the operation. 
M. Roche-Lubin is the only person opposed to this lattei 
opinion. M. Prange has shown, by his experiments, that 
there was no reason for him to repose on the authority of 
Roche-Lubin, since they themselves had proved to him the 
uncertainty of castration having the effect of maintaining the 
congenital natural supply of milk, his own trials having varied 
in their results in this respect; nevertheless, they have shown 
an increase in the annual amount . It appears of consequence 
that the operation of spaying should be performed at a proxi- 
mate and proper time after calving. — Recueil de Med, Vet. de 
Janvier , 1854. 
[To be concluded in another Number. ] 
XXVII. 
31 
