The removal of the testes from young cocks has been commonly practised in many countries, e.g. France, capons, as such birds are called, being fatter and more tender for the table than entire birds. The actual effect, however, on the secondary sexual characters has not in former times been very definitely described. The usual descriptions represent the castrated birds as having rather fuller plumage than the entire birds; but the comb and wattles are much smaller than in the latter, more similar to those of a hen. It is stated that the capon will rear chickens, though he does not incubate, and that they are used in this way in France.
The most precise of the statements on the subject by the earlier naturalists is that of William Yarrell [Footnote: _Proc. Linn. Soc., 1857.] (1857), who writes as follows:—
'The capon ceases to crow, the comb and gills do not attain the size of those parts in the perfect male, the spurs appear but remain short and blunt, and the hackle feathers of the neck and saddle instead of being long and narrow are short and broadly webbed. The capon will take to a clutch of chickens, attend them in their search for food, and brood them under his wings when they are tired.'
It would naturally be expected, on the analogy of the case of stags, that when a young cock was completely castrated all the male secondary characters would be suppressed, namely, the greater size of the comb and wattles in comparison with the hen, the long neck hackles, and saddle hackles, long tail feathers, especially the sickle-feathers, and the spurs. As a matter of fact, the castrated specimen usually shows only the first of these effects to any conspicuous degree. The comb and wattles of the capon are similar to those of the hen, but he still has the plumage and the spurs of the entire cock. Many investigators have made experiments in relation to this subject, and most of them have found that complete castration is difficult, and that portions of the testes left in the bird during the operation become grafted in some other position either on the parietal peritoneum, or on that covering the intestines, and produce spermatozoa, which, of course hare no outlet. In such cases the secondary male characters may fee more or less completely developed. Thus Shattock and Seligmann (1904) state that ligature of the vas deferens made no difference to the male characters, and that after castration detached fragments were often left in different positions as grafts, when the secondary characters developed. In one particular case only a minute nodule of testicular tissue showing normal spermatogenesis was found on post mortem examination attached to the intestine. In this bird there was no male development of comb or wattles, a full development of neck hackles, a certain development of saddle hackles, a few straggling badly curved feathers in the tail and short blunt spurs on the legs. Lode [Footnote: Wiener klin. Wochenschr., 1895.] (1895) found that testes could easily be transplanted into subcutaneous tissue and elsewhere, and that the male characters then developed normally. Hanau [Footnote: Arch. f. ges. Physiologie, 1896.] (1896) obtained the same result.
The question, however, to what degree the male characters of the cock are suppressed after complete castration is not so definitely answered in the literature of the subject. Shattock and Seligmann in their 1904 paper make no definite statement on the subject. Rieger (1900), Selheim (1901), and Foges [Footnote: Pfügers Archiv, 1902.] (1902) state that the true capon is characterised by shrivelling of the comb, wattles, and spurs; poor development of the neck and tail feathers; hoarse voice and excessive deposit of fat. Shattock and Seligmann, on the other hand, have placed in the College of Surgeons Museum the head of a Plymouth Rock which was castrated in 1901. It was hatched in the spring of that year. In December 1901 the comb and wattles were very small, the spurs fairly well developed, and the tail had a somewhat masculine appearance. In September 1902, when the bird was killed, the comb and wattles were still poorly developed, the neck hackles fairly well so; saddle hackles rather well developed; the tail contained rather loosely-grouped long sickle feathers; the spurs stout. The description states that dissection showed no trace of either testicle, and I am informed by Mr. Shattock that there were no grafts. The description ends with the conclusion that the growth of the spurs, and to a certain extent that of the long, curved sickle feathers, is not prevented by castration. With regard to the spurs this result does not agree with that of the German investigators, but it must be remembered that the latter speak only of the reduction of the spurs, not entire absence. It is important in discussing the effects of castration in cocks to bear in mind the actual course of development of the secondary sexual characters. When the chicks are first hatched they are in the down: rudimentary combs are present, wattles can scarcely be distinguished, and there is no external difference between the sexes. The ordinary plumage begins to develop immediately after hatching, the primaries of the wings being the first to appear. The feathers are completely developed in about five weeks, and still there is no difference between the sexes. The first sexual difference is the greater size of the combs in the males, and this is quite distinct at the age of six weeks. At nine to ten weeks in black-red fowls, in which the cocks have black breasts and red backs with yellow hackles, the black feathers on the breast and red on the back are gradually developing, both sexes previously having been a dull speckled brown, closely similar to the adult hens. The spurs are the last of the male characters to develop, these at the age of four months being still mere nodules, scarcely, if at all, larger than the rudiments visible in adult hens. This is the age at which castration is usually performed, as at an earlier age the birds are too small to operate on successfully. It follows, therefore, that the spurs develop after castration, and it would seem that their development does not depend upon the presence of the sexual organs. It is a question, however, whether castration in the cock is ever quite complete. In the original wild species and in the majority of domesticated breeds the spurs are confined to the male sex, and are typical secondary sex-characters, as much so as the antlers of stags or the beard of man, yet the above discussion shows that there is some doubt whether their development is prevented as much as in other cases by the absence of the sexual organs. Even if it should be proved that in supposed cases of complete castration, such as that of Shattock and Seligmann, some testicular tissue remained at the site of the testes, it would still be true that the development of the comb and wattles is more affected by the removal of the sexual organs than that of the spurs or tail feathers.
My own experiments in castrating cocks were as follows: On August 20, 1910, I operated on a White Leghorn cock about five months old. One testis was removed, with a small part of the end broken off, but the other, after it was detached, was lost among the intestines. On the same day I operated on another about thirteen weeks old, a speckled mongrel. In this case both testes were extracted but one was slightly broken at one end, although I was not sure that any of it was left in the body. An entire White Leghorn of the same age as the first was kept as a control. On August 27 the two castrated birds had recovered and were active. Their combs had diminished in size and lost colour considerably, that of the White Leghorn was scarcely more than half as large as that of the control. Such a rapid diminution can scarcely he due to absorption of tissue, but shows that the size of the normal cock's comb is largely due to distension with blood, which ceases when the sexual organs are removed. In the following January, the second cock, supposed to be completely castrated, was seen to make a sexual gesture like a cock, though not a complete action like an entire animal: this showed that the sexual instinct was not completely suppressed. In February this same bird was seen to attempt to tread a hen, while the white one, supposed to be less perfectly emasculated, had never shown such male instinct.
The White Leghorn cock was killed and dissected on May 13, 1911, nine months after castration. I found an oval body of dark, dull brown colour loose among the intestines: this was evidently the left testis which was separated from its natural attachment and lost in the abdomen at the time of the operation. I examined the natural sites of the testes: on the right side there was a small testis of considerable size, about half an inch in diameter. When a portion of this was teased up and examined under the microscope moving spermatozoa were seen, but they were not in swarms as in a normal testis, but scattered among numerous cells. On the left side was a much smaller testis, in the tissue of which I with difficulty detected a few slowly moving spermatozoa. The vasa deferentia were seen as white convoluted threads on the peritoneum, but contained no spermatozoa.
On July 29, 1911, a little more than eleven months after the operation, I examined and killed the second of these castrated cocks, the speckled mongrel-bred bird. I measured the comb and wattles while it was alive, in case there might be reduction in the size of these appendages when the bird was killed. The comb was 1-1/3 inches high by 2-3/8 inches in length. The spurs were 1 inch long, curved and pointed. Saddle hackles short, hanging only a little below the end of the wing. Neck hackles well developed, similar to those of an entire cock. Longest tail feather 15-5/8 inches, blue-black in colour.
I had no entire cock of same breed, but measured the entire White Leghorn for comparison. Comb 1-3/4 inches high by 3-3/4 inches in length. (It is to be remembered that the comb and wattles are especially large in Leghorns.) Wattle 1-1/4 inches in vertical length. Spur 1 inch long, stouter and less pointed than in the capon. Longest tail feather 12 inches long.
When killed the capon was found to be very fat: there were masses of fat around the intestines and under the peritoneum, which made it impossible to make out details such as ureter and vas deferens properly. I found a white nodule about half an inch in diameter attached to mesentery. The liquid pressed from this was swarming with spermatozoa in active motion. Two other masses about the same size or a little larger were found on the sites of the original testes. These also were full of mobile spermatozoa, and must have grown from portions of the testes left behind at castration.