622 
TAIT BUTLER. 
on page 164 he says, “ a passage is at first made through the in¬ 
ternal inguinal ring. * * * ” I might continue in the same 
line but to no purpose, as the same cloud of inaccuracy and 
ambiguity surrounds this special field of veterinary literature 
from the earliest to the present time. 
M. Jacoulet’s article in the American Veterinary Re¬ 
view, (Vol. 9), on “ Castration of Cryptorchids,” is probably 
the best description of the European method of operating in 
the English language, but it is only the Degive method ex¬ 
plained in a more acceptable and intelligible manner. It pos¬ 
sesses, however, the cardinal defect of all others, namely, of 
making out of a comparatively simple and easy operation, a 
very complicated, difficult and dangerous one, and if, by such 
a method, Degive and a few others have been successful in a 
fair percentage of their operations, the fact is undoubtedly 
due to their manual dexterity, rather than to any merit pos-- 
sessed by the absurd method pursued. 
Having failed to find a description of the operation which 
to my mind is worthy of approval, either from the standpoint 
of scientific surgery or actual experience, or that represents 
the opinions of American operators, I shall as briefly as pos¬ 
sible describe the method pursued by myself. I make no 
claim of originality for my method of operating, for, although 
I have never had an operator who possessed an accurate 
knowledge of surgery and anatomy describe to me his method 
of operating, still from personal observations I am convinced 
it is practically the method pursued by all successful Ameri¬ 
can operators. 
The operation should not be performed on animals less 
than two years old ; for, although by exercising care, it may 
with safety be performed at a much younger age, still owing 
to the slightly increased danger, and the fact that the testicle 
may yet descend, I never operate before that age. However, 
if the testicle is still in the abdominal cavity when the colt is 
one year old, it will in all probability remain there, but if it 
has alreadv descended into the canal it may, by the time he 
is two years old, have descended as far down as the external 
inguinal ring or even into the scrotum. 
o 
