in surgery, the operation of gelding. It was prohibited by a decree of the senate of Rome under Hadrian; and the Cornelian law subjected the person who performed the operation, to the same penalties as the person on whom it was performed, although it was done with his consent.

Castration is much in use in Asia and Turkey, where it is practised upon the slaves, to prevent any commerce with their women. In Italy, castration is frequent from another motive, namely, to preserve the voice for singing*.

Castration is sometimes found necessary in surgical cases, as in a sarcocoele and cancer of the testicles.

among botanists, a term derived from the fancied analogy between plants and animals. The castration of plants consists in cutting off the *antherae*, or tops of the stamens, before they have attained maturity, and dispersed the pollen or fine dust contained within their substance. This operation has been frequently practised by the moderns, with a view to establish or confute the doctrine of the sexes of plants; the antherae or tops being considered by the sexualists as the male organs of generation. The experiment of castration succeeds principally on plants which, like the melon, have their male flowers detached from the female. In such as have both male and female flowers contained within the same covers, this operation cannot be easily performed without endangering the neighbouring organs. The result of experiments on this subject by Linnæus, Alston, and other eminent botanists, may be seen under the article *Botany*, sect. iii.