766 
DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
inches below the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. 
After this is clone make an incision about three inches long in¬ 
volving the skin only ; into the puncture place one finger of 
each hand and tear the muscles, peritoneum, etc., instead of 
making a clean cut of them ; into this opening pass your left 
hand backwards toward the pelvis and proceed to locate the 
horns of the uterus, which can be easily traced to the ovaries ; 
take off the ovaries with a pair of long handled scissors, mak¬ 
ing a clean cut. It is best to take off both ovaries before re- 
moving the hand ; then stitch up the skin only, beginning as 
high as possible and leaving a drainage at the bottom. Use 
the continuous suture, which is easily removed. Brush some 
pine tar over the stitches and allow the animal her own free¬ 
dom afterwards. Cows that have been used for breeding pur¬ 
poses are sometimes spayed through the vagina, which is about 
the same as the operation in the mare, which will be described 
below. Deaths in the ox not quite i per cent. (19 out of 2143). 
As for the mare, as a general rule we seldom have an occa¬ 
sion to perform this operation, but nevertheless it is done 
sometimes. It is considered much more dangerous in the mare 
than any of the other domesticated females. Until a few years 
ago it was not resorted to except in animals that became un¬ 
manageable on the recurrence of heat and who would not breed, 
or were utterly unsuited for breeding purposes. But a few 
years ago the breeders of thoroughbreds became a little enthu¬ 
siastic over the subject of spaying, and as a consequence I was 
fortunate enough to see quite a number of the operations per¬ 
formed. As is the case with almost every race-horse man, they 
had a hard-luck story to relate. They claimed that the mare 
would not run up to her standard during the period of heat by 
at least two or three seconds, and related that just about the time 
their mare was in condition to run a record-breaking race, it 
was just their kind of luck to have her come in heat and spoil 
everything. Although I saw quite a number of yearling fillies 
operated on one season with only a few deaths, there were some 
of them that made first-class runners, but never heard of any of 
them breaking any world’s records. As to the season of the 
year, it makes little difference, as we generally have nice warm 
barns in which to keep them. The operation was formerly ex¬ 
tensively practised in Europe, the incision being made through 
the flank, and in a large percentage of them, as the old saying 
is, u the operation was a success but the animal died.” Per¬ 
centage of deaths in those I saw spayed was about 6 per cent. 
