si 8 
f r. b* Rogers. 
tested after the manner that to them shall seem best suited to 
confirm or disprove. If this be done, we incline strongly to the 
belief, that what we have here offered as hypothesis, the future 
will acknowledge as fact. 
THE OPERATION FOR SCROTAL HERNIA OF THE PIG. 
By T. B. Rogers, D.V.S. 
Practicing in the country, I am often called on to castrate 
ruptured pigs, and as the method I follow is uniformly successful, 
perhaps a detail of the operation may be of service to some young 
practitioners. The common procedure is to open the vaginal sac, 
remove the testicle, return the intestines and stitch up the wound. 
The mortality following this rude operation is necessarily heavy, 
and qualified practitioners will, of course, castrate by the covered 
operation. It is to some details of this operation that I would 
call the attention of the profession. To secure a large pig for 
operation, he should be lushed to a stout plank and the plank 
slanted up against a wall. Smaller pigs are held head downward 
by an assistant. Whatever method of securing quiet is followed, 
the pig should be so secured that he struggles but little. The pig 
secured, the operator attempts tl\e reduction of the hernia. In 
small pigs this can usually be done ; but in many cases, in large 
animals, it is a matter of difficulty. If it is reduced, an assistant 
keeps it back by pressure of the fingers of one hand while the 
operator cuts through the scrotal skin as high up towards the tad 
as is practicable , leaving the fascia between the tunica vaginalis 
and skin untouched, to be afterwards divided by a few horizontal 
touches of the knife. The diverticulum of peritoneum is now 
exposed, and a little pressure causes the testicle and its envelope 
to pass out. The operator will now with his thumb nail separate 
the testicle and tunic from the covering fascia, the other hand 
drawing the stone upward, and having satisfied himself that there 
is no intestine accompanying the cord, a needle loaded with 
double silk is passed through the cord, which is tied in two por¬ 
tions. One of the ligatures, after securing its half of the cord, 
