CASTRATION OF CRYPTORCHTDS. 
7 
Serres affirms, however, according to Hering, that “ Dan¬ 
ish veterinarians do not hesitate to dilate the ring sufficiently 
to introduce the hand and pass it through the peritoneum ; 
to feel for the testicle and bring it outward, and to apply a 
clamp or a ligature upon the cord.” He also relates success¬ 
ful cases occurring in Belgium, but nevertheless concludes : 
“These are not sufficient to authorize us to undertake or to 
advise an operation which may be considered as very danger¬ 
ous.” And, besides, I have never seen the operation performed 
at the veterinary clinic of Toulouse by Lafosse or Serres. 
In 1887, Messrs. Peuch and Toussaint in their Precis de 
Chirurgie Veterinaire , like the preceding author, make a com¬ 
plete study of cryptorchidy. In the surgical part they merely 
allude to the various modes of operation described and prac¬ 
ticed by M. Degive. Nothing in this chapter indicates that 
they have themselves ever performed the operation. Still, 
the castration of cryptorchids has been practiced for many 
years in Belgium, Holland^ Denmark, Germany and else, 
where, not only by veterinarians, but by empyrics. I may 
specially mention the names of Van Seymortier, Van Haelst- 
Dieriex, Degive, Nielsen, Ostertag, Smidt and others, who 
since 1845 have successively published most interesting 
papers on the subject. 
Marrel reports a case in France in 1838, and in 1847 two 
others, but gives no precise description either of the position 
of the testicle or of his modus operandi. Serres in his Guide 
Hygienique Chirurgical de la Castration reports that in 1840 a 
gelder operated successfully by an incision through the su- 
pero-posterior part of the left flank in a case which he had 
himself declined to undertake. But these' two practitioners 
have had no imitators. 
Director Degive deserves special mention for the manner 
in which he has endeavored to popularize the operation in 
Belgium and in France. Shortly after his nomination to the 
clinic of the veterinary school of Brussels, he formed a con¬ 
nection with Dieriex, who for years had successfully castra¬ 
ted ridglings. In 1864, this practitioner published a paper in 
which he minutely described its modus operandi and the re- 
