Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male reproductive gland or gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy, and chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes.
In presenting this concise treatise upon castration of the domestic animals, it is not intended to offer new modes of operation, but merely to collect together the various methods in use and leave the reader to appreciate them at their value. It is a work which, it is believed, has not yet been done in English veterinary literature, and on this account it is hoped will prove of interest and use to those engaged in that specialty of veterinary surgery.
In gathering the material, advantage has been taken of several of the most recent works of French and German writers on the subject, and plates have been obtained from the original and excellent wood cuts of Zundel, and Peuch, and Toussaint.
