ON CASTRATION. 44*7 
but without the slightest abatement in the symptoms. She 
died about four o’clock on Saturday. 
Post-mortem examination .—Every organ was healthy except 
the ileum, which had quite an altered appearance, no doubt 
from a congenital malformation. The mesentery was rup¬ 
tured, and a pendulous portion of the bowel had passed 
through the opening and become strangulated. The lesion 
existed about four feet from the terminal portion of the gut. 
I laid open the intestine to examine the pendulous portion, 
and also to see whether there was a calculus, but found only a 
few pieces of grass in it. At the extreme end there was a 
small abscess, out of which about a teaspoonful of dark¬ 
looking pus escaped on puncturing it. 
The rupture in the mesentery through which the ileum had 
passed was not very large. 
Believe me, 
Yours faithfully, 
Edward James King. 
To G. W. Yarxell, Esq. 
ON CASTRATION. 
By F. F. S. Constant, Y.S., Bombay Horse Artillery, 
Camp, Hyderabad, Scinde. 
In the Veterinarian for 1859, I noticed an article on the 
method of castration by means of cf scraping the cord,” with 
respect to which I wish to be permitted to make a few re¬ 
marks, at the same time to communicate to you my mode of 
performing that operation. 
It has always been my aim in practice to perform such 
and similar operations in a manner least likely to disturb the 
system, and to avoid giving the animal unnecessary pain ; 
therefore with reference to the method described in your 
journal (No. 374), I wish to state that, in my opinion, I con¬ 
sider it is attended with too much suffering to the animal, 
while in itself it is a cruel and unscientific method, and only 
worthy of the charlatan. Moreover, it is likely to be followed 
by serious results, and I feel convinced that these would 
have taken place had not nature endowed the animals on 
whom it was performed with more tenaciousness of life than 
many others. 
I think the best and safest mode of performing the opera- 
