TEARING AND TORSION.
These two modes of operation may, to a great extent, be considered as identical. Indeed, the mode of torsion may be said to have arisen principally as a modification of that of tearing, which is the older. In tearing, the cord was subjected to a certain amount of torsion by the hand, and then torn apart at a given point in its length; while in the process of simple torsion, as properly performed, we obtain a division of the cord by twisting it with instruments, which enables the operator to effect the separation at a definitely determined spot. Tearing differs, then, from torsion only in the fact that after giving several twists to the cord in order to gather its fibres into a more compact mass, and to diminish the resistance of the more superficial layers, it is divided in its continuity by a violent traction upon its fibres in the direction of its length.
In this process, especially applied to ruminants, the testicle being exposed, the operator secures the cord firmly with the thumb and index finger of one hand, to prevent the traction from taking effect too far upwards when being made by the other hand, after the cord has been twisted a few times on itself.