CASTRATION OF HORSES IN INDIA. 
141 
rectly, as to whether it is caries in the bones of the hock or 
caries in the acetabulum-joint? I should further like to ask 
the practical readers of your journal, if they do not consider 
firing for bony enlargements to be malpractice, such as bone- 
spavin, ringbone, &c. ? And if the use of antiphlogistics, 
setons, &c., would not be the most scientific mode of treat- 
ment? As to employing counter-irritants for the purpose of 
drawing the inflammation from the seat of its first attack, 
this, it appears to me, is based on mere conjecture. And as 
to corrugating the skin with the firing-iron, so as to cause 
an absorption of the bone ; the pressure thus caused too often 
acts as a mechanical irritant, thereby increasing the disease ; 
and we all know that bone will become absorbed in time : 
and I believe that nothing but time will cause its absorption 
to any amount. 
ON THE CASTRATION OF HORSES IN INDIA. 
By W. J. Marshall, Y.S., 2d Brigade, Bengal Horse 
Artillery, Lahore/ 
Gentlemen,— As the practice of veterinary medicine in 
this country necessarily differs somewhat from that at home, 
it may not be uninteresting to your readers if I offer a few 
brief remarks upon a subject of some importance, particularly 
to the veterinary surgeons of the Indian army — namely, cas- 
tration. In England I am aware that the performance of 
this operation upon aged horses is considered rather a serious 
matter ; and, except under peculiar circumstances, it is 
seldom done. The owners of horses always, and professional 
men frequently, object to it, as being attended with con- 
siderable danger to the animal’s life. Now in India nearly 
all the horses are stallions. Only two out of the ten regi- 
ments of light cavalry in Bengal are mounted upon geldings. 
In the Horse Artillery, Light Field Batteries, and the other 
light corps of cavalry, there are only about 15 or 20 per 
cent, geldings, and most of these have been castrated either 
on account of vice or the occurrence of scrotal hernia. 
Officers commanding regiments or troops frequently send 
horses to the hospital to be gelded, as the only means of 
^curing them of vicious or dangerous habits. We almost 
invariably operate without attaching any importance to the 
age. 1 have had patients of this kind as old as seventeen 
-^years. Another source of experimental knowledge in this 
