castration tools

[noobie20 (imported)]

the slotted plate is very similar to a tool used by a mohel, unsure of the name, during circumcision to make sure he doesn't remove the glans as well as the foreskin

[Twinsenboy (imported)]

Yet another ancient thread revived – though this one does give an opportunity to up-date some of the thoughts that I have had on the subject since 2005.

While castration has certainly not been rare in human history, there is surprisingly little information about the exact means of surgery in the pre-modern world. It has been performed, not only to produce eunuchs, but also as treatment for a variety of adult ailments from hernia to prostate cancer. Its most common use today is for PCa.

About all we can say about the procedure and the implements used before the modern period is that it was performed either by crushing or by cutting. By Assyrian times, both procedures were in use, with no details available beyond that simple fact.

The earliest clear description of “crushing” that I can find is from the writings of Paul of Aeginta (c.625–c.690).

Soranus, who wrote in the early 2nd century, noted that crushing was best used on young infants up to about age 4 months.

Paul of Aeginta gives the best detailed account that I have found of the early period for excision:

Even much more recent accounts give no more detail. In 1776, the surgeon who as a young man had aided his father in castrating the castrato Tenducci gave a deposition in a London court case:

That’s about as much detail as we ever get. Nothing about the instruments used in the operation, although a few of them do survive in museum exhibits. There were two “castratori” instruments on display at the Handel exhibit that C van D refers to in post #7 above. There are photographs of them in a BBC article that can be accessed at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4853432.stm

where the text reads:

I had a brief correspondence with Nicholas Clapton, the curator of the exhibit, who is shown holding one of them in the article. I asked him about how they were used, and he had no idea. A recent article on the Italian castrati by five German professors of medicine gives no more information other than that they were primitive instruments.

The answer for this single instrument can possibly be found by looking outside the practice of medicine on humans. Very similar

“castration clamps”

were used in castrating large domestic animals until fairly recently. They can be found in exhibits of veterinary medical instruments and descriptions of their use can be found in the literature. They look the same and were used for the same purpose – removing testicles from a live being.

The veterinary literature points out that in the absence of anesthesia, the animal would be struggling and moving no matter how well restrained. It was important to keep the slippery (and bloody during the operation) testicles from slipping out of reach into the inguinal canal. The clamp was put on the scrotum to hold the testicles firmly so that they could be excised. They did not

“crush the cord.” They were not “heated red hot”

to burn through the scrotum (as I have read in one account). They did not form a surface along which a blade could be run to sever the entire scrotum and its contents – certainly a far more bloody and dangerous operation than necessary...

Hence my Castratori profile pic. Anybody else sees the "all-seing eye" in that pic, and the pyramid, oh and the freemason gloves?

[C van D (imported)]

The question may be asked (and I'm surprised it's not been asked already) "What does it look like afterwards?" My stories include a range of descriptions (flap of loose skin, patch of skin of different colour &c). Curious readers might like to Google the name "Miki Miasa" which will land them in a website with many pictures of castrated "trannies". Be careful if you try to post any comments - I've been blacklisted for referring to these pseudo-girls as "Himself/herself". Miki, if you ignore the boobs, is quite clearly a castrated boy who was "done" quite early - witness very little pubic hair and a small penis that doesn't get hard even in times of sexual excitement.