IMPROVED CASTRATION HOPPLES. 
635 
perfect ease which ileus always exhibits. Perhaps there are but 
few cases of flatulent colic in which the stomach is not involved ; 
since we rarely witness this disease in horses that are not either 
coarse feeders or feeble from age and work. 
On this subject I should like to offer some further observations, 
but I have already trespassed too much upon your space ; yet I 
shall not regret having done so, if I may be the means of eliciting 
information, or calling forth discussion, upon a subject which has 
been too little noticed in veterinary science. 
I have the honour, &c. 
16, Spring-street, Westbourne-terrace. 
THE IMPROVED CASTRATION HOPPLES. 
To the Editor of “ The Veterinarian .” 
Dear Sir, — In the last Number of The Veterinarian I gave 
a description of some hopples for the castration of colts, which ap- 
pears, from a communication I have since received, is not suffi- 
ciently explicit for them to be generally understood. The “ cottrel,” 
as I have termed it, is a piece of iron secured to the collar strap : 
at the upper part of the cottrel there is a deep notch or groove, 
about one inch square, into which the two rings of the ropes are 
dropped, and there secured by a thumb-screw. Immediately 
beneath this notch is a square space in the cottrel, one inch and a 
quarter in the clear, where the collar strap is firmly secured, and 
which square is of sufficient size to admit the passage of the spare 
end of the strap, on the principle of a loop, after being buckled 
round the neck. The cottrel is simply a great improvement on the 
common knot, which liberates the animal immediately, by with- 
drawing the screw. I was incorrect in stating that the ropes pass 
through their respective rings after being brought between the 
hind legs ; they are simply passed under the collar in the usual 
way. I believe the term cottrel is used in the smith trade gene- 
rally for any iron fastening, and, being at a loss for a term, I thought 
it the most appropriate. There are such a number of directions 
required, and such a variety of ways of securing the animal when 
down, and the difficulties of description of these matters is so great, 
that I conceive it to be almost impossible to explain these things 
