CASTRATION OF CRYPTORCHIDS. 
5 
age of three-quarters of his proper value. I once knew two 
cryptorchids, three and four years old respectively, which 
could not be disposed of at three and four hundred francs, but 
when castrated were sold, one for twelve, and the other for 
thirteen hundred and fifty francs. 
It thus appears that in the business of raising horses, aside 
from other causes, so uncertain in pecuniary results, this in¬ 
cident is to be included as a source of doubt and fluctuation, 
and is to be charged with no small share of the losses always 
accompanying industrial ventures; and still the remedy for 
this state of affairs is in the hands of all veterinarians, and it 
is to be regretted that it has not yet entered into general 
practice. Indeed, castration of cryptorchids seems to have 
been systematically. ignored by even the most expert sur¬ 
geons and those most favorably situated for making it famil¬ 
iar to all. Even H. Bouley ignores it entirely in his article 
on castration in the Dictionnaire Pratique de Medecine et de 
Chirurgie Veterinaire. 
Gourdon in his Traite de'la Castration , published in i860, 
treats extensively of the historic aspects of cryptorchidy, of 
the growth and migration of the testicle in the normal state 
of the foetus, of the external characters of ridglings, of the 
causes of this abnormality, and the inconvenience attached to 
it; but when he reaches the question of operation he says: 
“ Before proceeding to the castration of a ridgling, the essen¬ 
tial point is to be sure that it is practicable. Indeed, it is 
plain that the extirpation of the testicle, which has not come 
down to its normal position, is not always equally possible, 
whatever may be the position it occupies, and evidently all 
operations must be contra-indicated when the organ has re¬ 
mained entirely in the abdominal cavity.” 
M. Van Haelst was the first to show the inconvenience 
of an operation in such circumstances, saying that “ the se¬ 
curing of the testicle in such a case cannot be obtained with¬ 
out an excessive dilatation of the ring, which would necessa¬ 
rily be followed by an inguinal hernia which would be irre¬ 
ducible.” 
Goubaux is also of the same opinion, adding, in support 
