vi PREFACE. 



animals in a case of difficult parturition requires special knowledge and 

 aptitudes ; and even those practitioners who are fortunate in possessing 

 these will be the first to confess that to attempt delivery in many cases 

 is really a work of the Danaides. 



To the members of the Veterinary profession, therefore, no apology 

 can be necessary in offering for their acceptance the present book. Every 

 endeavor has been made to make it a standard work, representative of 

 the most advanced views relating to this department of Veterinary Medi- 

 cine. Animated by the desire to present my colleagues in English- 

 speaking countries with a text-book at least equal to the best of the many 

 which have been published on the Continent — a list of which is appended 

 — every likely source of information has been made available, and no 

 labor or pains have been spared to render my onerous and very difficult 

 task as complete and as useful as possible. A glance at the references 

 and illustrative cases will testify to the correctness of this statement. 



It has often been a matter for regret by the accoucheur of women, that 

 the parturient period of animals was one upon which they could obtain 

 but little, if any, information ; and its relations and importance with 

 regard to this and the puerperal period in the human species has frequent- 

 ly been insisted upon. I trust that this cause for regret may be at least 

 partialK'' removed, and that the text-book may prove of some service to 

 those medical men who are anxiously striving to advance human obstet- 

 ricy, and a knowledge of those pathological processes around which there 

 is still doubt and uncertainty. 



My best thanks are due to Professor Saint-Cyr, of the Lyons Veterinary 

 School, for allowing me to use many of the drawings which illustrate his 

 excellent treatise on the same subject, and to which I have often referred 

 with much advantage. I am also greatly indebted to Mr. W. A. Cart- 

 wright, of Whitchurch, Salop, for his kindness in looking over the proof- 

 sheets containing the more practical portion of the subject ; his long 

 experience and skilful practice, combined with careful reading and study, 

 rendered his assistance particularly valuable in this respect. 



In this first attempt to deal with a very serious task, omissions and 

 defects will doubtless be discovered. But in the circumstances in which 

 I was placed they were unavoidable, and perhaps, after all, they will not 

 interfere with the utility of the work. Now that certain principles in 

 animal obstetrics have been laid down, and a commencement has been 

 made to establish the practice of the Veterinary Obstetrist on a sound 

 scientific basis, it is to be hoped that rapid progress will be made in 

 rendering it more perfect. Humanity is perhaps as deeply concerned in 

 this direction as in many others, and it must always be an important 

 object with the Veterinary Surgeon to spare animals pain, and to abridge 

 their sufferings as much as possible. 



GEORGE FLEMING, 

 Second Life Guards. 

 Regent's Park Barracks 

 November, 1877. 



