146 OBSTETRICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



but the calves, born during the night, were found dead in the morning. In the Field for 

 June 17, 1876, the birth of three calves — a Bull and two Cows — is reported. They were 

 alive and doing well. 



Quadrigemellar gestation is also sometimes observed in the Cow. 



Rainard gives two instances ; and Hamon mentions a little Breton Cow which, in 

 1858, produced four calves — two male and two female, the last two dying soon after 

 birth. Gelle gives a remarkable instance of a Cow which, in 1837, had three calves, in 

 1838 two, in 1839 two, in 1S40 two, and in 1841 four ! One of the last was a heifer ; all 

 were well-developed and successfully reared, and the last four, at five weeks old, weighed 

 about forty-five pounds each. 



The Vetermartan (vol. xiii., p. 579) gives an account of a delivery, with assistance, of 

 four dead calves. This journal also (vol. xiv., p. 15) records a case in which, with 

 assistance, a Cow was delivered of four calves — two dead at birth and two alive, though 

 these soon expired. They were properly developed, and appeared to have been healthy 

 up to parturition; they weighed, respectively, 25)^, 24, ij^, and 1734:' lbs. From rhe 

 structure of the placenta, it was concluded that each foetus had been contained in a 

 separate membrane and fluid. The birth was premature by two months and nine days. 

 In the same journal (vol. xvii., p. 424) another quadruple birth is described ; the calves 

 were well-developed and all born alive, though they soon after died. 



According to the Chester Chronicle (March 5, 1847), ^ Cow brought forth three calves, 

 and in three days a fourth. All died soon after. The /vV/o' (December 7, 1872) de- 

 scribes the birth of four calves by a Cow about four years old, and which had twins at a 

 previous calving. One calf died, but the others did well. The Liverpool Mercury 

 (March 28, 1845) reports a Cow as having produced four calves — full-sized, but dead. 

 Eddow's Shrewsbury Journal (July 29, 1846) alludes to a Cow which gave birth to four 

 bull-calves, three of which livecf. 



Mr. Cart Wright, of Whitchurch, gives an instance of four calves at a birth. The Cow 

 and calves died soon after. 



The Revue Vcterinaire of Toulouse (February, 1876) gives a case of quadrigemellar 

 parturition in a Durham Cow, aged twenty-two months, near Rochefort. Birth occurred 

 naturally in an hour ; two cow-calves were first born, then two males ; three did not live 

 beyond an hour, the other survived thirty-six hours. • 



Quintuple pregnancy is very rare in the Cow. 



In the Giornale di Veterinaria for June, 1855, Professor Lessona, of Turin, describes 

 a quintuple birth in a Cow in Piedmont. The animal was twenty days from its full 

 time. The abdomen was very voluminous, but beyond the premature delivery there 

 was nothing unusual attending the birth. The progeny consisted of three females and 

 two males, and each weighed about 37}^ pounds. They were healthy and fully de- 

 veloped ; but the mother, either through her premature delivery or from age, was unable 

 to suckle them, and they were put to another Cow whose milk proved unsuitable for 

 them, as they had an attack of indigestion, and in about eight days after birth all were 

 dead. Lessona thinks two were lodged in the same envelope in each horn, and that the 

 fifth foetus with a single placenta, occupied the body of the uterus with its proper 

 envelopes. A singular fact was their being all presented for delivery in a normal posi- 

 tion — a very extraordinary circumstance. The Cow had produced twin calves the pre- 

 ceding year. 



In the Veterinarian (vol. xxxii., p. 200), Mr. Forbes, of Reigate, mentions a Cow, six 

 years old, which at her third calving produced — three weeks premature — five calves at 

 a birth — four bulls and one cow. Three of the calves died in a few hours, the fourth in 

 a day, and the fifth two days after they were born. Still more remarkable is the case 

 recorded in this journal, by Mr. Garrard, as having occurred at Repton. A Cow, cross- 

 bred and eleven years old, and which had never previously brought forth more than one 

 calf at a birth, produced five living healthy calves, all of which, when he wrote some 

 days afterwards, were alive and vigorous, and had every appearance of continuing so. 

 They were all nearly of one size, and were larger and stronger than might have been 

 supposed. Four were bull-calves, and during parturition the first four presented in a 

 natural position, but the fifth was a breech presentation. 



The Chester Chronicle (February 11, 1854) reports a Cow, between ten and eleven 

 years old, producing five calves — four males and one female — all of which lived The 

 calves were nearly of the ordinary size, and were strong and lively. In Eddow's Shre^vs- 

 btiry Journal (September 9, 1874), mention is made of a Cow which had been purchased 

 as barren, but which in due course produced a dead calf, on the following day another, 

 and so on until four were born. The Cow then died, and on being opened a fifth calf 



