CASTRATION OF THE COW. 
413 
Next, we will consider the operation per the vaginal incision. 
This method was first practised in 1850, the priority being claimed 
by two veterinarians, Mons. Pranger and Charlier; and while it 
has never been satisfactorily proven to which the discovery of the 
operation does belong, it has generally been conceded to the latter, 
as he was the first to explain the method of operating, which he 
did July 29, 1850, before the Academy of Sciences. Ilis method 
at that time was as follows : After securing the cow in a standing 
position, he thrust his left hand into the vagina; then, stretching 
the superior wall of that organ, he inserted his right hand, in 
which he held a concealed knife having a short blade with a con¬ 
cave edi>;e. With this instrument he made an incision through 
the superior wall in the median line, commencing about two 
inches above and behind the os uteri, and extending it for about 
three inches backwards. Through this incision he passed the 
thumb, index and median fingers, with which he grasped one of 
the ovaries, drawing it into the vagina, where, with torsion 
instruments, he twisted it from the broad ligament, and then 
treated the other ovary in a like manner. Several improvements 
were made from time to time, Charlier himself experimenting 
considerably with different instruments for dilating the vagina, 
and finally adopting—instead of the fixed pincers for holding the 
broad ligament firmly, while the torsion pincers twisted the ovary 
off—a thimble to be placed on the thumb of the left hand, and to 
answer the same purpose. This caused less injury to the broad 
ligament by his being able to regulate the stretching of that 
delicate membrane, besides avoiding the danger of fatal hemor¬ 
rhage from the ovary breaking away on the third or fourth turn, 
and the ligament then untwisting itself, as sometimes happened. 
Later, Charlier substituted the ecraseur for the pincers, which is 
the instrument now used for extracting the ovaries. He perfected 
the operation by this method to the extent of reducing the mor¬ 
tality following to not more than one per cent. The operation of 
Mon. Colin, another experimenter, was essentially the same as 
Charlier’s, that is, by torsion ; but he contrived simpler and cheaper 
forms of instruments for that purpose. Pranger’s operation dif¬ 
fered from that of the others only in the ligaturing of the ovarian 
