5(>8 
A CASE OF AMPUTATION OF THE PENIS. 
By Mr, C. Skewing, Coventry. 
My patient was an aged pony, and which had been pur¬ 
chased by its present owner about ten days prior to my ope¬ 
rating upon him. On the journey home, and while the animal 
was in the act of voiding its urine, he was seen, as was supposed, 
to project or draw his penis. No notice, however, was taken of 
the circumstance until the owner next alighted, when he perceived 
the penis still down and bloody, and, upon examination, the marks 
of stitches were visible in the tegumental plications formed by 
the extreme vaginal involutions, rendering it evident that means 
had been taken to brace up for a time the pendant organ, which, 
from some unknown cause, had become debilitated. 
The owner, vexed at the trick that had been played upon him, 
at first determined to leave the poor animal to its fate, or, in other 
words, to let him take his chance, and he turned him into one of 
his fields : but the disgusting appearance which the animal pre¬ 
sented, and the powerful feelings of humanity, afterwards induced 
him to send for the knacker, in order to dispatch this suffering 
brute. The knacker, who deserves much praise for his disin¬ 
terestedness, persuaded the owner, ere he played his part, to have 
some medical advice. In compliance with the wishes of some 
friends I was sent for on September 15th, and speedily ushered 
into the presence of the poor emaciated creature, from the posterior 
part of whose abdomen hung, to use the owner’s words, ‘"a mass 
of corruption,’’ which on examination proved to be a portion of 
the penis in a state of ulceration, or rather gone on to gangrene. 
There was a discharge of thin watery sanious fluid, with blood, 
and highly offensive; and there was also present what may be 
considered paraphymosisy arising from serous infiltration into the 
cellular tissue which connects together the convolutions of the 
vagina or sheath, producing strangury of the lower end of the 
penis. 
As far as the hand and eye could direct and assist me, I con¬ 
cluded that nothing but amputation, close up to the groin, could 
offer any chance of relief. Accordingly I proceeded to operate, 
having first washed the parts with a solution of chloride of lime, 
in order to destroy the offensive fcetor. I next placed a com¬ 
press, made of two long thin pieces of iron, round the upper 
part of it, and adjusted them so as to produce an equal pressure 
upon the penis and teguments, by the corresponding ends being 
brought into apposition by means of strings, acting on the 
