ON THE CASTRATION OF THE COW. 
397 
ficult to manage, gave but little milk, and ever appeared out of 
condition. Nothing seemed to promise any amelioration save the 
operation of castration : for my own part I felt persuaded of this, 
and I endeavoured to instil a similar feeling into M. Haquart. 
Unfortunately, perhaps for both him and me, it entered m}' head 
to make trial of a new method of operating, which, notwithstanding 
it had succeeded, I had remarked that it proved a long and difficult 
business, and particularly on cows such as this one, to extract the 
ovaries by torsion and tearing out, and that thereby the abdomen 
was in consequence too long exposed to the air. 
To obviate this inconvenience in the case of M. Guillotin, I 
had cut them out through a simple incision with a pair of blunt 
scissors ; neither had I any reason to apprehend any thing from this 
mode of operating. 
Whether the scissors were too sharp, or whether the bloodvessels 
were deficient in retractive force, or whether the blood, from its 
excessive fluidity, refused to form a clot, there arose considerable 
haemorrhage. Blood flowed into the abdomen ; death was certain ; 
I therefore had the beast slaughtered for the low-prized butcher. 
This last result threatened to prove fatal to the success of the 
operation at Rheims. Nevertheless, I would not be discouraged, 
since there remained still two resources to me : one was to take 
up the operation on my own account, or to guarantee such animals 
as were trusted to me. I resolved to make trial of them. For 
the execution of the first project, however, I was not prepared ; 
and, for the second, I obtained nought but refusals or evasive pro- 
mises. M. Bellencontre was the first to accept my proposition. 
Experiments IX, X, and XT. — One cow, which I took to my 
own home, was operated upon with complete success; two others, 
which were sold to me, likewise did well in succession. Afterwards, 
by a fatality which seemed bound to me in my inquiries, one of 
them, which M. Bellencontre had purchased as fresh-calved, proved 
with calf about three months. The consequence was considerable 
haemorrhage, abortion, and, as one might expect, the supervention 
of metro-peritonitis, followed by death. 
Experiment XII. — The very morning following this unfortunate 
operation, I had to repair to Villios-Franqueux, to castrate the cow 
of a private individual, an old gardener of M. Guillotin, who had 
been present at the operations performed at the latter’s house, as 
well as acquainted with the results. 
This time, I must confess, it was not without trembling that I 
opened the abdomen ; however, since the chance was given me, 
I did not like to forfeit it. Had it not been for that, and that I also 
felt a vehement desire of perfecting an operation which I knew 
would turn out useful, I believe I should have 
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