Animal Castration

Of all the operations pertaining to the domain of Veterinary Surgery, without doubt the practitioner is most frequently called upon to perform—more especially in breeding districts—that of castration, the destruction or removal of the essential organs of generation in our domesticated animals. It is, however,


 not nearly so often resorted to for purely surgical reasons as for purposes closely related to questions of agricultural and industrial economy, by reason of its effect upon the individuals of the various species of animals subjected to it, in order to improve their value and increase their usefulness to mankind. And that this is its practical effect is no modern discovery. As far back in antiquity as seven centuries preceding the Christian era, it was known and practised upon various animals. Of this we may find ample historical proof in the writings of Roman, Greek, and Oriental authors, where specific mention appears of the various methods employed, including the processes of excision, of crushing and of tearing. Even the castration of females was known to our less remote ancestors, the Danes having in the sixteenth century performed it on sheep, swine, cows, and even mares. The spaying of cows, however, seems to have been forgotten about the beginning of the present century, and it was not until the year 1831 that Thomas Winn, of Natchez (Louisiana), and afterwards Levrat (of Lausanne), brought it to the attention of veterinarians, as a means for the improvement of the milky secretion in cows.

The operation may be considered under two distinct heads. Under the first it is to be considered as one of necessity, as when performed with a therapeutic object in view; as, for example, when it constitutes one of the first steps involved in the surgical treatment of strangulated hernia, or of diseased conditions of the testicles or ovaries, such as orchitis, epididymitis,


 sarcocele, hydrocele, cyst, etc. In the other case it is resorted to for reasons of mere fashion and convenience, and has for its object the production of such a modification of the general organism as shall increase the adaptedness of the animals subjected to it to the uses to which they are applied; when, of course, the economic becomes the paramount and exclusive reason for thus interfering with the obvious creative purpose. It is the operation as performed under this general heading that we shall now principally consider.

In relation to this latter object it must be borne in mind that the operation is followed by certain peculiar effects, which may either manifest themselves upon the entire organism, or upon some special functions only. In the first instance it is quite evident that the primary and most obvious effect of the mutilation is to be discovered in the character and disposition of the animal, which at once becomes in a double sense an “altered” creature, docile and submissive, and entirely willing to become the obedient and useful servant of his human master. But it is not alone that we find the vicious stallion, the uncontrollable bull, the kicking jackass, the dangerous boar, and even the hysteric mare and cow transformed into the useful gelding, the quiet ox, the patient donkey, and the “fatherly” barrow, the quiet working mare and the productive cow, as the result of the change which the character—the nervous system, in fact—has undergone. Besides this, other marked changes are to be observed of a more distinctly


 physical character, such as a modification of the entire organism, manifested in the external symmetry, and the expressive physiognomy of the creature, when deprived of its virility.

The animal becomes more quiet, and its general form is modified. If altered at an early age, the skeleton will be arrested in its growth, and the mass of muscles attached to it will participate in the defective development; the head will become elongated, the legs will continue to be lighter, and the body will show a corresponding lack of development. In other words, the male animal will tend to assume the characters of the female, in form and feature, the gelding, indeed, resembling the mare, not only in the ensemble of his appearance, but in his voice, which loses the resonance of the stallion’s, and his physiognomy, which becomes milder and less expressive; while his neck is lighter and his mane more scanty, with the hairs which compose it more fine and silky.

A like tendency exists in other male animals to acquire a resemblance to the female as an effect of the operation of castration. The altered bull has a weak and feminine voice; his head is narrower and elongated; his horns become lengthened and more curved; he has exchanged his wild and threatening aspect for a mild and gentle visage; his neck also is lighter and his chest narrower; his bony structure is less massive; and he has, besides all the rest, acquired a quality of essential importance to mankind in a dietetic view, that of accumulating fat. This last phenomenon shows us that besides the other


 changes referred to, there is an important modification of the nutritive forces of the animal, or at least a change in the direction of their action.

When thus deprived of his virile functions the animal ceases, in effect, to exist as one of a species, but maintains an essentially individual life, in which the assimilable nutriment which he absorbs, instead of being in part appropriated to the office of reproduction of his kind, is all devoted to his own individual conservation. In animals not used for draught purposes, or in other labor, when the food received is nearly always in excess of the amount required for the support of the organism, the result follows that the surplus of nutritive substances (found sometimes in great abundance) becomes stored in the connective tissue and intermuscular structure, and that in this way the flesh assumes superior and more nutritious qualities than that of the unaltered animal, while, at the same time, it loses the strong and peculiar odor frequently communicated to it by the presence of the testicular apparatus and secretion in the entire animal.

This property of modification of function is probably still better illustrated in the effect of the operation upon cows, where we shall find not only the power of accumulation of fat increased by castration, but, above all, the milky secretion improved both in quality and quantity, and also in the duration of the flow.