434 DIFFERENT METHODS OF CASTRATION. 
I, for one, must beg to differ from this. I have used the clams 
with and without caustic, and I must say that I cannot imagine, 
unless it be a very strong one, and necessarily dangerous to em¬ 
ploy, that it can be of any use on parts that are compressed, and 
have neither circulation nor vitality for it to act upon. In tlie 
last six cases that I have operated on I have not used any, and 
the effect has been as equally well produced without it. It is 
necessary to have a pair of pincers of such dimensions as will 
enable you to make the requisite pressure in bringing the ends 
of the clams together; and you will find this facilitated by having 
the end of them made to fit the outside of the clam, and they 
should be rough, to prevent their slipping off, an inconvenience 
that has happened to me several times, not having an expert 
assistant, and the horse invariably making a struggle at the mo¬ 
ment the clams are brought together. 
Monsieur Hurtrel d’Arboval further obseiwes, that, having all 
things in readiness, the subject for operation is to be thrown on his 
near side, which gives the operator the opportunity of using his 
right hand more freely. The off hind leg, being dmwn up to a 
side line, must be securely fixed. In operating on a number of 
horses, we should have men accustomed to the casting and secur¬ 
ing them, and the operator attends only to the manual part of 
the operation. 
The latter is an observation hardly necessaiy for practitioners 
in this country; at least it has never come under my notice to 
have witnessed so many to operate on at a time as to furnish such 
a remark; but in France, where it is proscribed to castrate horses 
before a certain period, and in Russia, where it is not the custom 
to perform the operation till after the third or fourth year, men are 
in the habit of castrating as many as 80 or 100 in a day. I have 
been informed, that it is the practice to bring young horses of the 
prescribed age to the fair at Caen, in Nonnandy, when, if not 
selected for stallions by the government emissary, they are imme¬ 
diately cut; and in this way a celebrated practitioner, residing in 
the vicinity, often operates on 800 or 1000 horses in one week. 
The horse being secured, and the necessary instruments at hand, 
the operator, laying hold of the near testicle and drawing it out suf¬ 
ficiently to render the scrotum tense and secure the chord, makes 
his incision through the sci^otum and tunica vaginalis, if the opem- 
tion be the uncovered one; the testicle presenting itself, is to be 
cautiously laid hold of by the operator, having given up the knife: 
at this moment the twitch should be tightened on the nose, to 
prevent, if possible, the animal struggling: during his effort cau¬ 
tion must be used merely to support the testicle, and not to make 
the same pull on it as when the cremaster muscle is acting. Having 
