pain may be absent throughout the whole of convalescence. Antiseptics
have made it possible to perform these operations with practically no
risk to life.

Though castration and Oophorectomy can be performed with safety and
without pain, they are absolutely unjustifiable operations, if done to
produce sterility.

Every incision and every stitch in surgery, beyond the necessities of
the case, are objectionable, and to remove an organ, when the section of
its duct is sufficient is to say the least of it, bad surgery.

Vasectomy is the resection of a portion of the duct of the testicles,
followed by ligature of the ends. No doubt ligature alone would be
sufficient for the purpose, but up to the present, a piece of the duct
has been removed, when this operation has been found necessary in the
treatment of disease.

This duct is the secretory tube of the testicle, so that when it is
occluded, the secretion is dammed back, and degeneration and atrophy of
the organ are induced. It soon wastes, and becomes as functionless as
though it were removed.

This operation can be performed in a Surgery with the aid of a little
Cocaine, and the patient may walk to his home, sterilized for the rest
of his natural life, after the complete loss of any accumulated fluid.

Of these two operations for the sterilization of men, vasectomy is
preferable. The major operation for the purpose of inducing artificial
sterility should never for a moment be considered.