ESSAY ON SPAYING EWES. 
687 
and loss to the owner, as they invariably become lean, and dis¬ 
turb all the rest of the flock. The operation of spaying has been 
found to remedy this evil, and to prove ultimately advantageous 
to the rearer of cattle. 
I shall confine my remarks to that branch of the science which 
relates to the spaying of ewes, as it is a department of surgery 
which belongs to a few districts only where sheep are bred, and 
which, therefore, is not so well and generally understood. 
Spaying has the same effect on the female of any species as 
castration has on the male. It not only prevents the possibility 
of progeny, but also eradicates the appetite for sexual con¬ 
nexion. 
On the evening previously to the operation it is proper that the 
ewes be taken from the grass and penned up in some place of 
confinement, in order that their stomachs may be emptied a 
little. This treatment is not absolutely necessary, but it is 
highly commendable, as the operation is uniformly attended with 
less pain to the subject, and the operator is enabled to perform it 
with more facility; for during the operation the animal is kept 
lying on] its side, and strains itself violently in its attempts to 
escape. 
The operation is to be performed as follows:—The ewe is to be 
laid on her~side. Two men, besides the operator, are necessary ; 
one to hold the head and fore legs, and the other to keep the 
hinder legs fast. Some make the incision into the abdomen be¬ 
low, but I am confident that the side is a much more suitable 
place. It is a matter of no consequence whether the right or left 
side be taken. If the operator mean to use the right hand, he 
should take the left side, et vice versa . In both ways, however, 
he will arrive at the same result, and produce the same effect. 
In some ewes it happens that the uterus is stiff, and will not 
admit of being brought all over to one side; and in others, which 
have had lambs, it is sometimes so tender, that to pull it all over 
to one side might cause laceration. In all such cases the safest 
way is to extract one of the ovaria from one side and the other 
from the other side, when the wound of the former is closed up. 
Generally, however, an incision into one side is sufficient, and it 
is always to be preferred, when it possibly can be done, without 
making two wounds. Out of two thousand five hundred or up¬ 
wards of female animals, upon which I have performed the ope¬ 
ration, not more than six or eight of them required to be cut on 
both sides. Having placed the ewe on her side, the operator is to 
stand at her back, and, with a pair of scissors, to shear the wool 
off the spot where the incision is to be made, and fold it back in 
such a manner that it may be stitched over the place when the 
