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It was alleged that no traces of testicles were found externally or internally yet semen containing spermatozoa was found in the seminal vesicles. Spermatozoa have been found days and weeks after castration, and the individuals during this period were capable of impregnation, but in these cases the reservoirs were not empty, although the spring had ceased to flow.
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.
The application of torsion or the twisting of the arteries by a pair of forceps which will firmly grasp them has, in a great degree, superseded every other mode of castration, both in the larger and the smaller domesticated animals.
But castration shows that the antlers of stags and other such characters are not determined in the zygote when the sex is determined, but owe their development, partly at least, to the influence of another part of the body, namely, the testes during the subsequent life of the individual.
With regard to the other two cases it must be pointed out that the difference between the two somatic sex-characters on the two sides is chiefly a difference of colour, except the difference in the spurs in Bond's pheasant; that the evidence already cited shows that in fowls castration does not prevent the development of the colour and form of the male plumage, nor of the spurs: that in drakes, although castration does not seem to have been carried out on young specimens before the male plumage was developed, when performed on the mature bird it prevents the eclipse, and does not cause the male to resemble the hen.
Thus in drakes the effect of castration is that the secondary sexual character remains permanently instead of being lost and renewed annually. Goodale, however, does not describe the moults in detail. In the natural condition the drake must moult twice in the year, once when he sheds the nuptial plumage, and again when he drops the summer dress.
This identification with the brother shows with special clearness that "the little one" signifies the genital. An early knowledge of the male genital which she later lost she must have acquired at that time according to the assertions of this second dream. Moreover the second dream points to the infantile sexual theory that girls originate from boys through castration.
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.
But why castration should lead to the reappearance of an early condition of the horns cannot be explained with any certainty. The tusks of the elephant, in the different species or races, differ according to sex, nearly as do the horns of ruminants. In India and Malacca the males alone are provided with well-developed tusks.
In docking, it will be found perfectly practicable: our patients will escape much torture, and tetanus will often be avoided. The principal danger from castration has arisen from the severity with which the iron has been employed. The colt, the sheep, and the dog will be fair subjects for experiment.
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