SIMPLE EXCISION.
This is claimed to be one of the oldest modes of operating, and though to a great extent discarded by practitioners of the present day, still finds its application in the treatment of the smaller animals. With larger patients, however, though still strongly recommended by some practitioners, it is not generally employed on account of the profuse hemorrhage which necessarily follows the amputation of the cord. Still it is conceded that this hemorrhage, as in many cases of the clean, transverse section of arterial blood vessels, will cease spontaneously by the contraction of the vessels on themselves, and the formation of a clot at the divided end, as well as in the surrounding cellular tissue. However, there is a possibility of the continuance of the hemorrhage for some length of time, and the bad effects of excessive depletion are not to be overlooked, especially in an animal whose general constitution has from any cause suffered impairment. If there is any one of the various modes of operating in which the standing position is allowable, this, in our opinion, is the one, the steps of the process being so few and so short, and admitting such simplicity and rapidity. These consist in making a free opening in the bag, reaching with a single stroke of the knife into the vaginal cavity; grasping the testicle and pulling it gently downwards; and cutting the cord right across, from the front backwards, above the epididymis, the cord returning of itself into the vaginal sac—the division being made, of course, on both sides. The animal is then kept quiet in his stall and left alone until the hemorrhage subsides.