The operations of the suture and burning are described by Albucasis (Chirurg. ii, 67, and i, 47); by Rhases (Cont. xxiv); and by Haly Abbas (Pract. ix, 52, and ix, 80.) They all evidently copy from our author. Garengoit affirms that Paulus has made mention of crural hernia, but we agree with Heister that this is a mistake. SECT. LXVII.—ON RHACOSIS, OR RELAXATION OF THE SCROTUM. When the skin about the scrotum is relaxed without the bodies within being affected, rhacosis is formed, being a most unseemly complaint. Wherefore Leonides, having placed the man in a recumbent posture, cut off the redundant skin with a scalpel direct upon some board or some hard skin, and united the lips of the wound with sutures. But Antyllus, having first transfixed the redundant skin with three or four ligatures, cut off what was external to them with a sharp-pointed pair of scissors or scalpel, and having secured the parts with sutures, effected the cure by the treatment for recent wounds. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Our author’s description of the two modes of performing the operation is copied by Albucasis. (Chirurg. ii, 68); and by Haly Abbas (Pract. ix, 53.) SECT. LXVIII.—ON CASTRATION. The object of our art being to restore those parts which are in a preternatural state to their natural, the operation of castration professes just the reverse. But since we are sometimes compelled against our will by persons of high rank to perform the operation, we shall briefly describe the mode of doing it. There are two ways of performing it, the one by compression, and the other by excision. That by compression is thus performed: children, still of a tender age, are placed in a vessel of hot water, and then when the parts are softened in the bath, the testicles are to be squeezed with the fingers until they disappear, and, being dissolved, can no longer be felt. The method by excision is as follows: let the person to be castrated be placed upon a bench, and the scrotum with the testicles grasped by the fingers of the left hand, and stretched; two straight incisions are then to be made with a scalpel, one in each testicle; and when the testicles start up they are to be dissected around and cut out, having merely left the very thin bond of connexion between the vessels in their natural state. This method is preferred to that by compression; for those who have had them squeezed sometimes have venereal desires, a certain part, as it would appear, of the testicles having escaped the compression. * * * * * COMMENTARY. We have given Celsus’s description of the operation in the 64th section of this Book. Albucasis describes the operations by compression and by excision. In the former the testicle is squeezed by the operator while the patient is seated in hot water. In the other the spermatic cord is to be first secured with a ligature and then the testicle cut out. (Chirurg. ii, 69.)