PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 281 
walls at the umbilical opening. The apparent result was a 
speedy and radical cure ; but three weeks after the operation, 
contrary to my orders, the dog was let out of the kennel, 
and in his gambols about the garden ruptured himself 
again, showing that the adhesions were not firm enough to 
sustain the weight of the gut. Such is not usually the result 
when a ligature or clams are passed round the skin without 
cutting with the knife. The retraction of skin during the 
formation or cicatrization is favorable to the radical cure of 
pendulous hernia; and to effect this it has been suggested that 
the skin over an umbilical hernia should be rendered sore by 
some caustic leaving a raw surface to cicatrize capable of 
great retraction. 
This operation, repeated at stated intervals, leads to inflam- 
mation of the skin, and plastic effusion. The integument 
becomes indurated, the gut is thus pressed up through the 
umbilicus, and is retained there by the permanent shrinking 
of the ilium. The first case treated in this manner I saw in 
Turin. It was a child under the care of my friend Dr. Luigi 
Vella; and since then, on my late visit to the Alfort School, 
I witnessed a horse under a similar treatment for exomphalus, 
and M. Reynal assured me that he cauterized cautiously, and 
the case was tardy, but that he expected the result would 
prove satisfactory. From what I have stated, it must be 
apparent that I consider Delwart’s apprehensions in a mea- 
sure well founded, and he is not indeed the only individual 
that has thus been in doubt, as we shall see further on. 
Was Professor Delwart’s operation original, scientific 
and was his instrument the best he could use ? Respecting 
the originality of the operation it may turn out that such a 
means has never before been adopted in hernia, but, as a 
method of castration, the complete ablation of scrotum and 
testicles is an old practice usually qualified as “ barbarous.” 
The “boxing rams” is the same thing; and in the Roman 
states castrators of horses adopt the plan very extensively. 
I have a very singular specimen by me, which came from 
Rome. It consists in the scrotum, with its shrivelled up 
contents, attached to a pair of strong wooden clams ; these 
are a foot long, slightly curved, and presenting a surface of 
pressure upwards of an inch in width. The testicles, before 
being subjected to pressure, are arranged one in front of the 
other, and great strength is evidently required to close the 
ends of the clams, which are closely tied and bound round 
with stout pieces of sackcloth. Had I to perform such an 
operation I think I should prefer the wooden to the iron 
clams, for lightness, and compressing, as they do, a large 
