TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 117 
cure is effected in about the same time as in ordinary cases 
of castration. 
The second section of M. Gourdon’s work is on the Cas¬ 
tration of Females (spaying). The most important of these is 
the cow, which has been known for a long time. That of 
the sow, and smaller animals, is mentioned in the Talmud 
of the Jews, where the castration of females is proscribed 
without any generic designation. 
The first information on this subject is a passage in Oliver 
de Serres, from which we know that castration was per¬ 
formed on cows and goats as far back as the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. This is confirmed by Thomas Bartholin, from whom 
we learn that the peasants of that time castrated the mare, 
the cow, and the sow, by the excision of the female testicles 
(ovaries). The practice has since continued in Germany, 
Styria, and Prussia, but more particularly on the young 
animal, with a view to fattening. Thomas Winn, a farmer 
in the United States, was the first person who conceived the 
idea of practising the operation to favour the secretion of 
milk. M. Levrat, veterinary surgeon at Lausanne, castrated 
a cow in 1832, in the presence of Dr. Mayor, his eminent 
compatriot. After M. Levrat, whose long-continued expe¬ 
riments were given to the public, ought to be mentioned 
MM. Regere, Putot, Desbans, d’Extrane, Lorin, Aubin, 
Morin, Rev, Roche-Lubin, Prange, and lastly, M. Charlier, 
who has more especially devoted himself to this operation. 
That which has greatly contributed to M. Charlier’s success 
is a new method of operating, which is not attended with 
the danger attendant on the former modus operandi , so that 
the castration of cows may now be performed without any 
more danger than that of the male subject. 
The advantage obtained from the castration of the cow is 
not only a more abundant secretion of milk, but the milk, it 
is affirmed by all who have tasted it, is better, being richer 
in butter and cheese than the milk of the other cows. M. 
Menard, who has adopted this plan, states that, before cas¬ 
tration, his average quantity per cow was 1890 litres per 
annum; since castration, it is 3300 litres. When put to 
fattening, the animals also require less provender, accumulate 
more fat, and the meat is of better quality, resembling ox-beef. 
The primitive way of operating was by opening the side, 
and seeking for the ovaries in the abdomen. This seems to 
have been the method employed by Thomas Winn, and is 
that employed by M. Levrat, to whom we are indebted for 
the first description of the manual operation; and in this 
M ay it has continued down to the time of M. Charlier with but 
