ON THE CASTRATION OF THE COW. 393 
be definitively settled, and either way certainly is vastly better 
than indecision. 
We wish the administration would cause to be instituted in the 
veterinary schools a series of experiments on a matter so inte- 
resting for the economy of the cattle of large towns. To conduct 
such to a satisfactory conclusion would not require any very great 
outlay. This we shall be able to prove in another article, shewing 
the results of some experiments that we ourselves made at col- 
lege two years ago, with the assistance of some cow-keepers in 
the neighbourhood. 
Waiting for the realization of our wish, we are desirous to 
communicate to the public the recent efforts made by one of our 
brethren, M. Charlier (of Rheirns ), with a view of throwing addi- 
tional light on so important a question of physiology and rural 
economy. Most sincerely do we trust that so honourable an 
undertaking may not prove too much for his powers. 
Here is the Compte-rendu of his first essays : — 
Report of the Academy of Rheims on the Castration 
of the Cow. 
By M. P. Charlier, VS. 
Corresponding Member of the Academy and Central Society of Veterinary 
Medicine. 
N’allez pas, trop superstitieux, 
Servir servilement les pas de vos ai6ux, 
Cr4ant a Tart deschamps de nouvelles ressources, 
Preez d’autres chemins, ouvrez-vous d’autres sources. 
Deeille. 
Gentlemen, — Until very lately, although we were acquainted 
with the principal modifications produced on the organism by cas- 
tration, we were not acquainted with the influence thereby exerted 
on the lactary secretion. It was not until the commencement of 
the present century that an American agricultural writer, Thomas 
Winn, conceived the happy idea of castrating cows, with the view 
of prolonging the period of lactation, without the necessity of re- 
newing gestation. 
After Mr. Winn, who had refused to give publicity to his dis- 
covery either from the apprehension that it was not new, or that 
the doubts which were still impending over its utility might expose 
him to ridicule in the eyes of those who were ignorant of it, M. 
Levrat, veterinary surgeon at Lausanne, in Switzerland, and M. 
Regine, veterinary surgeon at Bordeaux, made fresh trials of the 
operation with the same end in view, and, through some papers 
