castration tools

[tjstill (imported)]

I found this image and text but cannot translate it. I have not seen this anywhere before and I wondered what use the flat slotted plate is put too. Maybe one of our operatic castrati experts can enlighten me. If you follow the other links from this page there is a little more detail but again I cannot read it.

http://franzpeter-messmer.de/Kast.html

[Bagoas (imported)]

The text is a fictionalized account of the castration of Carlo Broschi who later became the famous castrato, "Farinelli." Other accounts indicate that he was drugged with opium (to which he became addicted later in life) and was unconscious during the operation, though, in the version given above, he screams so loudly that he can be heard throughout the village (!), quite an accomplishment for an 8 or 9 year old boy. I'm not sure what the use of the slotted metal plate was. Some contemporary illustrations of castration and descriptions of the operation show and describe a flat strip of wood, somewhat like a short length of lath which was placed under the spermatic cords. Perhaps this metal plate performs the same function (whatever that was.) The continuation of the text, BTW, describes Farinelli's career. There is no description in the text of the use of any of the implements illustrated.

[Quillman (imported)]

The slotted tool was used widely and the testes were fed along the slots, did much the same job as a clamp across the cords. The testes were sliced off with the razor/knife usually red hot to cautherise the wound in a single sweep. The Chinese used something after the same idea except that the clamp opened up to take in the penis and testicles together, then shut before cutting.

Quillman UK

[JesusA (imported)]

The drawing is from the novel Der Venusmann, by Franzpeter Messmer. The novel was originally published in 1997, with a paperback edition released in 2001. It’s now hopelessly out of print from all that I can gather.

The book is basically a fictionalized biography of Farinelli (born Carlo Broschi). Messmer is a journalist with a great interest in music. His biography of Richard Strauss received good reviews, but, from what I can tell with my very poor German, Der Venusmann is not very well-written.

I, for one, would appreciate it if one of our native German speaking Archive members would write a brief review of the book for posting.

[henys (imported)]

There is the same picture in Ortkemper' s book Caffarelli(in german language,good written book).There are two pictures with description which coud be very good used in EA stories.But I think that these pictures are from some old medical book and the castration is some therapeutic operation in adult man,not in boys.Sorry for my English.

Karel

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

henys, no need to apologize. Your English is as good as mine! --FLO--

[C van D (imported)]

The slotted tool was used widely and the testes were fed along the slots, did much the same job as a clamp across the cords. The testes were sliced off with the razor/knife usually red hot to cautherise the wound in a single sweep. The Chinese used something after the same idea except that the clamp opened up to take in the penis and testicles together, then shut before cutting.

Quillman UK

On the other hand, the exhibition in London about two years ago under the title "Handel's Castrati" put on display some implements shaped like button-hooks. These were used (apparently) to fish around inside the boy's scrotum for the spermatic cords which would then be tied-off. It isn't clear whether the testicles were then squeezed out of the boy's scrotum and snipped off, or just left to atrophy.

[dark_soul (imported)]

Henderson Castration Tools

Video Henserson Castration Tool Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A7gBS3QiqA)

Elastor tool

Elastor Tool Picture (http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/liv ... -029f1.gif)

[JesusA (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).

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.

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:

In the case of excision, the candidate for castration is place on a platform, with the fingers of the left hand the scrotum with its contents (the testicles) is pulled and when it is at its maximum tension, two vertical incisions, one at each testicle, are made with a lancet ('smili' in Greek). When the testicles pop out from the incision, they are exposed from their sheaths and removed leaving only the vascural pedicle.

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:

Tomasso Massi; I do recollect very well when my said Father in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty Eight Castrated the said Mr Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci who resided in the Village of Monti St. Savino in the presence of Gaetano Mugni of Figlini Assistant and Servant of my said Father, and I do clearly recollect that the said Operation of Castrating was performed by Order of the said Tenducci’s Father who was then Servant of the Commissary of the said Village and that such Operation was made at a House in the said Village where the said Tenducci resided.

Interrogator; further at the request of the said Mr Rossi for what reason and in what manner was the said Witness present at the said Operation and what Age he was of when the same was done.

Massi: My Father brought me up to the Profession of a Surgeon which I exercise at present and used to take me with him to all his Operations that I might practice and I do clearly recollect that my Father Castrated the said Tenducci of both parts by making the usual Incisions in the Groin and of having Executed and cut out his Two Testicles and the Spermatick Ducts…. I the Witness was of the Age of Seventeen Years or thereabouts.

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:

They look rather innocent in the museum display case - like a pair of old-fashioned shears. But these "castratori" were the implements used to castrate boys - who were making an irreversible sacrifice for their singing careers.

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.

[C van D (imported)]

In short, we just don't know! Readers who are fascinated by the subject may get some satisfaction by searching on "Monte's Loss". The subject is equine rather than human, but readers may be able, mentally, to substtute a boy for the colt.