DIFFEKJENT METHODS OF CASTRATION. 
437 
above the epididymis, and his assistant, accustomed to the me¬ 
thod, turned the testicle round several times, till, in fact, the cord 
was completely twisted in two. No haemorrhage whatever took 
•place, though the parts were in many fully developed. I recol¬ 
lect seeing my father perform the operation on an old horse. 
When he was about to apply the actual cautery, the man who held 
The clams used such force, or was so awkward, that the cord was 
torn asunder, but no haemorrhage ensued, contrary to our expec- 
.tation, for it was in an old but vigorous horse. 
Castration performed by ligature seems to be entirely abandoned; 
and although, perhaps, securing the artery by a ligature, and cutting 
through the spermatic cord afterwards, would seem to many the most 
scientific method of performing the operation, yet it must be remem¬ 
bered that this operation on the horse cannot be compared to the 
same on the human subject, the anatomy of the parts connected 
with it, and the circumstances under which it is performed, differ 
so materially. In man, the position of the intestines exacts 
that the abdominal ring should be so formed as to prevent the 
descent of the intestines into the scrotum. In the horse, the po¬ 
sition of the intestines is so different, that we but seldom hear of 
a hernia under natural circumstances, although the abdominal 
ring in him is always large enough to allow of the descent of in¬ 
testine. 
. When we consider this circumstance, connected with the unna¬ 
tural position the animal is necessarily trussed into, to undergo 
the operation, and the violent efforts of the abdominal muscles, 
we cannot but perceive what liability there is, in every case, 
during the common operation, of an irreducible escape of intestine, 
an accident that has occurred in several instances, to my know¬ 
ledge, to able practitioners, when fatal consequences were the 
result. It is a knowledge of several cases that have terminated 
fatally, through the escape of intestine, and particularly in race 
horses, that has chiefly induced me to prefer the close or covered 
operation. Mr, Jewell lost a valuable race horse of Mr. Vansit- 
tart^’s. Crown Prince had an accident of a similar nature occur 
to him when operated on by a Mr. Atherton, of Liverpool. Miv 
Field can best inform you of the case of Leopold, a horse belong¬ 
ing to the late Duke of York; and Lord Kilboume’s Reviewer 
lost his life last year in a similar way. I performed the opera¬ 
tion on three old horses belonging to Mr. Tilbury, without a single 
untoward symptom occurring. I performed on a young one for 
Mr. Shackle, on a young one belonging to a Mr. Thompson, on 
two of his Majesty^s young horses, on one of my own four years 
old, with the same success; and Mr. Sewel, under Mr. Coleman's 
