448 
ON CASTRATION. 
tion is the following, and the reason of my submitting it to 
the notice of the profession is, I have never seen or heard of 
its being performed in the way I perform it. I have always 
pursued it in my practice, and have never experienced any 
inconvenience from it, although I have castrated a good many, 
and at all ages. I likewise consider it to be, of all the methods 
that are had recourse to, one most unlikely to be followed by 
any untoward event, and also least calculated to give pain to 
the animal. 
Operation .—Having cast the animal, and secured him in the 
ordinary way, and being provided with the necessary instru¬ 
ments, viz., one scalpel, one pair of crooked scissors, two dis¬ 
secting forceps, and the iron clams, and, in case an artery has 
been cut too short, a little thread for a ligature, the operator 
thus proceeds :—The right testicle is taken in the left hand, 
and is secured between the thumb and forefinger, thereby 
rendering tense the scrotal coverings. An incision is now 
made through the integument and subjacent tissues to the 
testicle, without wounding the gland; the incision is then 
more conveniently lengthened by means of a pair of crooked 
scissors, and thus the violent pain, which would be produced 
were the testicle wounded by the knife, is avoided. The 
gland is then taken in the left hand, free of all its heretofore 
coverings, and after disconnecting the vas deferens, the iron 
clams are adjusted with the right hand, at a short distance 
from the gland, according to the judgment of the operator, 
whilst an assistant is holding the clams to prevent tension 
being applied to the abdominal portions of the cord. The 
operator makes that portion of the cord in direct connection 
with the gland slightly tense, which he cuts through with an 
ordinary scalpel, a short distance from the gland ; after re¬ 
moving the refluxed blood, the arteries are sought for and 
taken up, and if the gland has been properly removed, the 
vessels can be drawn out sufficiently to admit of a knot being 
made in the ends of them by means of two forceps. The 
same having been done with the left testicle, the animal is 
allowed to rise. Nothing further requires to be done : the 
animal gets his exercise morning and evening. When pus 
begins to form, which it soon does, the parts only need to be 
kept clean, so as to allow free exit to the discharge, and in 
ten or twelve days the animal is perfectly fit for duty. 
For about four days prior to the performance of the opera¬ 
tion the animal is kept on bran mashes and green grass; and 
when suppuration commences, I gradually return him to 
his full feed again. 
The above method of operating being so very simple in 
