206 
OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS. 
for castration at a particular season, when many colts were 
lost both in this and other countries, after castration), and 
I believe this one was unfit for the operation, as he was not 
looking healthy. A second was presented at the same time 
(this colt was a year older). I was not desirous of operating 
upon either, d’he yearling was sent home for a week, but the 
two-year-old was kept under my own eye. The first named 
was brought again in a week ; still, no change being apparent, 
I directed that he should be taken home for another week. 
He was brought a third time, and again objected to. The 
owner of this animal believed I was playing with him, and 
felt annoyed at being treated, as he thought, in a strange'and 
unaccountable way. I endeavoured to explain, but I did not 
however succeed in gaining his confidence, for he thought (to 
use his own words) I was humbugging him. With this 
feeling, he took the colt to another veterinary surgeon, and 
had him castrated without further delay, the ‘‘ vet. ” as I 
was informed, chuckling over his good fortune at having 
gained my loss. The yearling was submitted to the ordeal 
and soon paid the penalty of the mistake, as he died within 
three days after the operation was performed. The two- 
year-old colt I had for three weeks under my own care, when 
I declined to operate, and sent him home. In a week or two 
after this I was called to see him, as he was suffering then 
from strangles; besides which the whole tegumental system 
manifested disease of an eruptive character, from the head 
to the hind feet. When this disease passed off, he was 
operated upon, and did well. 
I think we may learn a good lesson from these two cases. 
In all probability the first-named colt was “ breeding stran¬ 
gles,’^ and under such circumstances the operation was too 
sudden and severe a trial, as it produced a shock to the 
system from which the colt could not recover. It is very 
likely that the two-year-old colt would have shared the same 
fate had the operation been performed at the time he was 
first presented. 
Youatt, writing on strangles, concludes in these words:— 
‘‘To this conclusion, then,we are warranted in coming—that 
strangles is a specific affection, to which horses are naturally 
subject at some period of their lives, and the natural cure of 
which seems to be a suppurative process. From some cause, 
of the nature of which we are ignorant, this suppurative 
process usually takes place in the space between the branches 
of the maxillary bone, and, occuring there, it appears in the 
mildest form, and little danger attends. When the disease 
is ushered in by considerable febrile disturbance, and the 
