2 42 NORMAL PARTURITION. 



and lifting it up by assistants at each side. If the foetus is not dead, the 

 Cow exhibits dislike of the pressure ; but if dead, then it rests on the 

 shee . 



Another authority states that, with the Mare, the expulsive efforts 

 cease for the time being as soon as the foal is dead, and if it has not 

 entered the pelvic inlet ; if it has passed into this, the pains continue as 

 usual. 



The causes of death of the fcetus during parturition are not numerous, 

 and may be enumerated as follows : — i. Ktiots on the umbilical cord, 

 which, though not unfrequent in the human fcetus, appear to be ver}^ rare 

 in animals ; 2. Twists of the cord around the body, neck, or limbs of the 

 foetus, and which may be sufficiently tight to interrupt the circulation in 

 the umbilical vessels ; 3. Premature nipture of the membranes and escajDe 

 of the whole of the liquor amnii, which, if parturition is not soon com- 

 pleted, exposes the foetus to great danger from immediate pressure of the 

 uterus upon it ; 4. Distmio?i, moro. or less complete and extensive, be- 

 tween the uterus and foetal envelopes, by which the vital connection be- 

 tween the mother and fcetus is interrupted, and if the latter is not quickly 

 expelled it must die from asphyxia. Owing to the difference in the pla- 

 centation of the various animals, it happens that this foetal asphyxia is not 

 equally common in all; a fact which experience and clinical observation 

 have abundantly demonstrated. 



Many veterinarians, and among them Saint-Cyr, have been struck by 

 the fact, that no matter how soon they were called in to a case of difficult 

 parturition in the Mare, nor how trifling the difficulty might be and rapid 

 the delivery, a living foal was never produced ; while in cases in Cows, 

 though incomparably more difficult, and requiring manipulation for more 

 than an hour, living calves were the rule. So common is this experience, 

 that a very distinguished French veterinary surgeon — Donnarieix — has 

 laid it down as a maxim that the foal does not live more than three 

 hours, often less, in the uterus, after the first expulsive efforts ; while the 

 calf in the same conditions can live much longer-^-sometimes for several 

 days — after the commencement of labor. The explanation he gives, and 

 which we think is correct, is based on the manner in which the foetal pla- 

 centa is inserted into the uterus. In the Cow, the placentulae, multiple 

 and independent of each other, adhere firmly and closely to the uterine 

 cotyledons, so that the placental circulation may persist for a long time, 

 notwithstanding the energy of the uterine contractions ; while in the 

 Mare, the placental apparatus being everywhere distributed over the 

 chorion, adheres but feebly to the uterine mucous membrane, and gives 

 way as soon as labor commences, so that fcetal asphyxia is imminent if 

 bii'th be not prompt. 



It was, and still is, believed by many that the foetus plays an active 

 part in delivery, and particularly in rupturing its membranes ; while 

 others consider that its death increases to a marked degree the difficulties 

 of parturition, because it does not then stimulate the contractions of the 

 uterus, and its flaccid tissues do not afford that resistance to the uterine 

 muscles which they do when it is alive. But Saint-Cyr denies that the 

 death of the foetus renders parturition slower or more difficult ; though 

 he admits .that if, at the commencement of this act, there may chance to 

 be any trifling irregularities in presentation or position, these may be 

 rectified to a certain extent by the automatic or more or less instinctive 

 movements of the living foetus. He concludes, that though the death of 



