177 
LETTER FROM “FARMER MILES” IN REPLY 
TO MR. BOWLER. 
Gentlemen,— -At p. 36 of the January number of the 
Veterinarian for the current year. I find there is a letter 
from a G. W. Bowler, M.D.Y.S., Cincinnati, Ohio, “ On 
the Castrating Ecraseur.” In his letter he claims to know 
something about me, and also takes the liberty to endeavour 
to mislead the veterinarians of England by several direct 
misstatements, which I hope you will allow me to correct, or 
possibly some might be debarred from using the best instru¬ 
ment made for castration purposes, the ecraseur. G. W. 
Bowler says, “ A man calling himself Farmer Miles travels 
from this country to England, carrying in his coat pocket 
one of our old castrating ecraseurs.” This constitutes mis¬ 
statement No. I. Further, that lie imposes it upon the 
veterinarians over there as a new invention of his for cas¬ 
trating, ” misstatement No. 2. Lower down he continues, 
“ From that date to the present, I and also Dr. Guinness 
have continued to use it, and have during all these years 
castrated thousands of animals of all ages, without an acci¬ 
dent or the loss of a single one, &c.,” misstatement No. 3. 
G. W. Bowler also states " in 1873, I called on Professors 
Axe and Pritchard, and endeavoured to explain to them the 
advantages to be derived from the use of the castrating 
ecraseur,” this may be true, for in 1879, Professor Pritchard 
had a castrating ecraseur like our old fashioned ecraseur, 
and did not use it, but he bought one of my improved 
ecraseurs. 
I never owned but one of the old fashioned ecraseurs like 
those spoken of by G. W. Bowler, and that I was glad to 
part with at half its original cost. But had I known that 
any man or even a boy eight years old could have castrated 
thousands of stock, without the loss of a single one with such 
a tool, I should certainly have been tempted to keep it at 
any cost instead of wasting time and money to improve on 
it, and get a far more satisfactory instrument. 
I am well known as a practical castrator (and more than 
that I do not pretend to) from Mexico to California, in the 
United States of America, and in Canada, England, Ireland, 
Scotland, and part of France, and think it strange in the 
whole of my travels 1 have never heard of such a good old 
ecraseur as G. W. Bowler describes ; nor even have I heard 
of the man himself, who apparently has done so much work 
for so many years. 
