190 



PATHOLOGY OF GESTATION. 



With regard to these curious and very interesting cases, Saint-Cyr is 

 of opinion that, to allow the foetus to remain in the detacJied portion of 

 the uterus, the separation must have taken place slowly and gradually, and 

 that cicatrization must have been going on in the portion already separated 

 — the work of union and disunion being simultaneous. 



Treatment. — When it is possible to diagnose rupture of the uterus, the 

 indications are obvious : extract the foetus as promptly and easily as 

 possible, and if need be by gastro-hysterotomy. We shall refer to the 

 treatment of these cases when describing this accident as a consequence 

 of parturition. 



Metrorrhagia. 



Accidental haemorrhage from the uterus during pregnancy, appears to 

 be rare in animals, judging from the paucity of instances recorded. 

 Carsten Harms {Lehrbuch der thierdrztlichen Gcburtshillfe, p. 60) has ob- 

 served this accident in cattle ; it was accompanied by a small discharge 

 of blood from the vagina, particularly during micturition, and resulted in 

 the death of the foetus. Other observers have not noticed this discharge ; 

 the blood always, remaining in the uterus, where it has been sometimes 

 found, as a clotted mass, to the amount of more than four gallons. In 

 the majority of cases it would seem to be occasioned by a spontaneous 

 separation— more or less extensive — of the placental capillaries from the 

 uterine surface. Zundel has seen it occur in an animal which showed 

 signs of oestrum while pregnant. The following cases may, to some extent, 

 illustrate this accidental uterine haemorrhage. 



Egli was called to see a Cow which staggered about in walking, and did not eat. He 

 found it lying, and had great difficulty in getting it up ; when it kept alternately lifting the 

 hind legs. The pulse was slow and very weak, and the heart's beats were loud. There 

 were no other symptoms. It was bled, but during the operation it staggered and trembled; 

 the bleeding was stopped. It then lay down without appearing to suffer, and was dead in a 

 few minutes. At the autopsy the uterus was observed to be considerably distended and 

 of a violet color, and an enormous quantity of blood was effused between the muscular 

 and serous layers, so that the wall of the organ was about six inches thick ; there was no 

 extravasation, either in the abdomen or the cavity of the uterus. No cause was ascribed 

 for the accident. 



Ziindel {yotirital de Med. Vet de Lyon, 1861) describes the case of a Mare which sud- 

 denly presented the followi!ig symptoms during pregnancy: Anxious countenance, 

 drooping head, rigidity of the loins, staggering gait and lameness of the left hind leg, as 

 if from a sprain ; the respirations 36 per minute, and pulse 60 and small. Treatment 

 was of no avail ; prostration gradually set in, the animal appeared extremely anxious, 

 soon it could net stand, and when it fell, death ensued almost immediately without much 

 agony. There were never anv symptoms of colic or discharge of blood per vulvain. On 

 examination, a five months' old foetus was discovered iii the right cornu, and the placenta 

 was detached nearly throughout. The left horn was the seat of sub-acute inflammation, 

 and its volume exceeded that of the right ; an enormous blood-clot, measuring about 

 four gallons, occupied this horn and the body of the uterus. The blood-vessels were 

 nearly empty. Zundel asks whether the lameness, which had already been noted as a 

 symptom of metrorrhagia by some German authorities, may not be explained by the 

 arrangement of the lumbar plexus, which sends nerves to the limbs and the generative 

 organs. 



In a pregnant Mare, Schmidt [Antiales de Med. Vet. de Bruxellei, 1862) witnessed 

 the following symptoms : Sudden inappetence ; head low and " beneath the manger; " 

 reeling gait ; extreme feebleness, and hind limbs widely separated ; looking first towards 

 one flank, then the other ; pulse iic, regular but sinking; heart's beats quite audible, 

 and venous pulsation in neck ; mucous membranes very pale, and the body temperature 

 low. Dark-colored blood flowed in a passive manner from the uterus. The Mare died 

 on the same day, and an autopsy revealed all the organs, except the uterus, almost blood- 



