142 
CASTRATION OF HORSES IN INDIA. 
operation is afforded by the prevalence of scrotal hernia. Of 
course, in nine out of ten of these cases we remove the tes- 
ticle of the affected side after the successful reduction of the 
tumour. A large number of such patients have passed through 
my hands during the two years I have been in the country, 
and I am happy to say that I have never lost one. I must 
confess that I was rather nervous about the result of my first 
half dozen cases ; not that I had any reason to be so, but 
simply because I had not shaken off my English notions on 
the subject. 
With reference to the best mode of operating in India, I 
must say that I prefer the employment of the actual cautery. 
I have tried both it and the caustic clams at the same time, 
two patients by each plan, and the result was unfavorable to 
the clams. There was more local swelling, greater constitu- 
tional disturbance, and the cases were much longer in hospital. 
Those horses upon which the cautery was used were gene- 
rally at work in from fourteen to twenty days. They might, 
indeed, have left the hospital sooner, but the scrotum would 
not have been perfectly healed. I know that in England 
horses have been at work within six or seven days after the 
operation, but it is not right to strike them from the sick-list 
so soon. In stating that I castrate with the actual cautery, 
I do not wish to be understood to say that I use it only, far 
from it. I apply it as little as possible. I open the scrotum 
with the knife, and, after the steel clams are adjusted, sever 
the testicle from the cord by the same means, simply using 
the heated iron to close the mouths of the bleeding arteries 
previous to liberating the parts. 
When I left old England I was prejudiced in favour of the 
clams, and commenced my career here with them, but in a 
very short time I abandoned their use. I have seen ligatures 
tried, although I have not tried them myself in India. The 
result was not satisfactory. 
I am so convinced of the superiority of the knife and 
actual cautery together, that I frequently operate in this way 
after hernia. Of course I allow a day or two to elapse 
between the returning of the intestinal mass and the ex- 
cision of the testicle. My thus opening the tunica vaginalis, 
under such circumstances, may appear to many rather a bold 
proceeding, but I have never had an unfortunate case. The 
plan was suggested to me by a professional friend in the 
cavalry, who had practised it himself, and I have never had 
reason to regret my adoption of it. 
In conclusion, I may state that, although I admit there 
is some danger attending this operation, and that it is greater 
