414 
HUBERT T. FOOTE. 
arteries. But this method, while being a sure preventive from 
hemorrhage, produces a much greater liability to peritonitis from 
the irritation caused by the threads which are brought out through 
the vaginal opening. 
By the numerous experiments with ovariotomy in France, and 
close observation following the operation, it lias been proved to 
be useful in curing nymphomania, in sterilizing cows that give 
only an inferior quality of offspring, as well as those that are pre¬ 
disposed to abortion or difficult parturition, and placing those as 
well as the unfruitful and old cows, that are no longer desirable for 
reproduction, in a condition for fattening, at the same time bettering 
the quality of their meat. Charlier claims that after spaying a 
cow gives double the quantity of milk; but for this he only en¬ 
courages it as a special industry, as in the dairies. The operation 
can be practised with profit only on such cows as have produced 
all the calves wanted from them, are destined to furnish milk and 
finally meat for the butcher, or which, on account of sickness, age, 
or otherwise, can no more be used for reproduction, and have no 
other destination than the abattoir. 
For fattening purposes, according to Charlier, the operation 
should be performed when the cow has attained the age of from 
six to eight years, after she has calved two or three times, and 
then she will be ready for butchering in about a year. He does not 
advise waiting longer, as the old cows give poor calves, in which 
the bony system predominates, give less abundant and less nutri¬ 
tive milk; they do not fatten easily, sometimes not at all, besides 
their meat is hard, fibrous and of inferior quality. Young cows, on 
the contrary, give better calves, more robust and less bony, more 
abundant and a better quality of milk, fatten more easily, and 
furnish a superior meat. In operating for the superior milking 
qualities, he considers forty days after the second or third calving 
to be the best time, as the cow then gives the most milk, and its 
advantages are more enduring. The meat is better in cows 
operated on for milk first, than where they are operated on es¬ 
pecially to fatten ; that is, if the cows are dried up before butch¬ 
ering; for if they are killed while giving milk the meat is not as 
good, the milk depriving it of much of its juiciness and flavor. 
