244 
F. MAURI. 
• Various Modes of Operation. 
The preceding remarks sufficiently indicate the operative 
method which I have exclusively adopted for the castration 
of cryptorchids. In both forms of testicular ectopia, the in¬ 
guinal way seems to me indicated to insure success in the 
greatest number of cases. According to Van Seymortier, of 
Andenaerde, this method was practiced by Flemish gelders 
as early as 1832. The results which have followed in numer¬ 
ous cases in the hands of Parrel, Dieriex, Degive, Capon, 
Jacoulet and others, as well as my own, appear to me suffi¬ 
ciently satisfactory to entitle it to a place in the first rank of 
surgical achievement, and to justify its adoption by all practi¬ 
tioners. It is, however, but right to expect that with some 
improvements in the modus operanii , and with the more rigor¬ 
ous use of antiseptic measures, the number of fatal results 
will be diminished, and that in this way the castration of 
cryptorchids will enter finally in current practice. I have 
never thought of trying either the method by incision through 
the flank, or that through an incision of the inferior abdomi¬ 
nal wall near the inguinal ring. I suppose these methods 
have had their time; that they have been entirely abandoned, 
and that Mr. Degive refers to them in his work simpty as en_ 
titled to mention as items properly belonging to a history of 
surgery. Still, this is not wholly the fact, for at the present 
time foreign practitioners, whose names are authority, are 
still preaching these methods, and claim for them great ad¬ 
vantages. For example, Nielsen has adopted the improved, 
classical Danish method, which he describes as follows: 
“ The horse is cast by the Danish method, having the re¬ 
gion to be operated upon turned upward, and the inguinal 
region being first washed with soap and brush, and then with 
a tepid phenic solution, an incision ten centimeters (about five 
inches) long is made in the skin immediately in front of the 
border of the pubis near the thigh, but always at a short dis¬ 
tance from the scrotal region at a point where the abdominal 
wall is thinnest. The cellular tissue covering the abdominal 
wall is then divided with the fingers from before backwards, 
