OVARIOTOMY IN THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
353 
OVARIOTOMY IN THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
Presented to Cornell University by Charles Henry Jewell, 
for the Degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, 
June, 1900. 
Under the Direction of W. L. Williams, Prof, of Surgery, at iV. Y. State Veterinary 
College to whom acknowledgtnent for valuable assistance is given. 
History .—Ovariotomy of domesticated animals is one of the 
oldest operations in veterinary surgery, it having been per¬ 
formed contemporaneously with the operation in women. Ova¬ 
riotomy in both is described by ancient writers, also by modern 
authors. It is mentioned by Aristotle (4th century B. c.), 
Varro (1st century B. C.) and Pliny (1st century A. D.). Noth¬ 
ing was written or done in this line during the middle ages. 
The more modern writings on this subject date back to the 17th 
century, when Bartholdi in 1662 speaks of spaying mares and 
cows through the flank, which operation was then of frequent 
occurrence in Denmark. The operation in women was revived 
by Morand, a Frenchman, in 1697, who was then secretary of 
the Paris Academy of Surgery. At the beginning of the pres¬ 
ent century ovariotomy in both was revived on the European 
continent, and the operation in women was introduced in Amer¬ 
ica by Dr. Ephraim McDowell, of Danville, Kentucky. Dr. 
Nathan Smith, who like Dr. McDowell, had studied at Edin¬ 
burgh, and not knowing of the operations of the former, also 
successfully operated in 1821, but the operation did not obtain 
general recognition until 1824, when a paper was published by 
Dr. Euzers in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal . 
Thomas Winn, a Louisiana farmer, in 1813 was the first in 
America to perform ovariotomy in the domestic animals. He 
endeavored to demonstrate the influence of ovariotomy on the 
increase of milk secretion by spaying several of his cows through 
the flank. The operation was not considered successful until 
Charlier in 1850 introduced his vaginal method, for which he 
devised certain complicated instruments which he deemed de¬ 
sirable. Colin in 1858 simplified this method by showing that 
Charlier’s vaginal dilator was unnecessary. 
