452 
ON THE SPAYING OF MILCH COWS. 
M. Levrat, Lausanne. 
In May 1832, charged by the government of Vaud with 
the superintendence of the castration of the colts in that canton, 
the opportunity w^hich this alforded me of repeating the experi¬ 
ments made in America on the spaying of the cow was too fa¬ 
vourable to be lost. I extracted the ovaries from a cow destined 
to be slaughtered. She was not then giving milk, and therefore 
my purpose could not be fully answered; nevertheless, it was 
something for me to have studied the method of performing the 
operation, and to have assured myself of its pathological con¬ 
nexion and effect. I should, on another occasion, be enabled 
to practice the operation with more adroitness, and I should pro¬ 
bably inspire more confidence in those who might think proper 
to employ me. The cow seemed a little depressed during the 
first two days after the spaying, but on the third day she had 
regained all her ordinary habits and spirits. 
I was then anxious to operate on a cow that was in the condi¬ 
tion indicated by M. Winn, i. e. about a month after her second 
or third calving*. 
M. Francillon Michaud, to whom I imparted this wish, re¬ 
quested me to make the experiment on one of his cows. She 
was six years old, and had her third calf. In the preceding 
years she had given eight quarts of milk at each time imme¬ 
diately after her calving, and six quarts some months after¬ 
wards. 
On the 28th of June, 1833, she was operated on. She ap¬ 
peared scarcely affected by it, except that she did not eat quite 
so much during the two next days, and her milk diminished to 
four quarts; but on the third day she recovered her spirits and 
appetite, and yielded her usual quantity of milk. During the 
summer she gave nine quarts at each milking, and after that, 
when the green food failed, she gave seven quarts, although, in 
the preceding years, she had not been accustomed to yield more 
than six quarts at this season. 
Encouraged by the success of the first experiment, M. Francil¬ 
lon begged me to spay a second cow. He chose an old one 
that gave plenty of milk, in order that he might be able to judge 
of the effect of the operation on old cows. She was at least 
twelve years old, and had had two calves in the preceding Oc- 
* See an interesting' paper on this subject in The Veterinarian, vol. vii, 
page 569. 
