GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 261 



species are those which the obstetrist is generally called upon to attend 

 during protracted or difficult parturition ; and every practitioner who has 

 had any experience in this matter, will testify that for one case in the 

 Mare or other animal there will be at least ten in the Cow. Two Danish 

 veterinarians, Nielsen and Tallich, have estimated, that while they have 

 had ten cases in the Mare, the first has had 190, and the second 159 in 

 the Cow ; and yet these writers practised in a district where more Horses 

 than Cows were reared. 



We have already said that the Mare is, of all quadrupeds, the one 

 which brings forth its young most easily — a fact noted by Aristotle. But 

 this remark only applies to normal parturition in that animal ; in abnor- 

 mal cases there is, as a rule, more urgency and danger than in the Cow, 

 as well as more difficulty in affording relief. Indeed, a very able veterin- 

 arian, Donnarieix, who has had an extensive experience in obstetricy, de- 

 clares that obstetrical operations in the Mare are a labor of Hercules ; while 

 in the Cow they are, comparatively, child's play. This experience will not 

 quite accord with that of every practitioner ; as in both animals difficul- 

 ties in parturition will be sometimes encountered, which baffle the skill 

 of the most competent, and often prove insurmountable. One of these 

 difficulties in the Mare is related to the difference in the vitality of the 

 foal and calf when parturition has commenced — a difference which we 

 have before pointed out as due to the particular arrangement of the ma- 

 ternal and foetal placentae in each species, and which it is of great impor- 

 tance to remember in choosing the means to be employed in overcoming 

 obstacles to parturition in either the Mare or Cow. The following com- 

 parison has been drawn by Donnarieix, between parturition in the Mare 

 and Cow, and fairly accounts for the differences in each animal : — 



Mare. Cow. 



1. Delivery is often followed by i. Delivery always terminates 

 insuccess. favorably. 



2. A wound inflicted on the geni- 2. A wound of these organs 

 tal organs is generally fatal. rarely causes death. 



3. Inversion of the uterus is 3. Inversion of the uterus is often 

 nearly always irremediable. curable. 



4. Mares nearly always succumb 4. This accident is not generally 

 to penetrating wounds of the abdo- fatal in Cows. ^ 

 men during parturition. 



5. Delivery of the most simple 5. Delivery, even in the most 

 kind is occasionally followed by bad complicated cases, generally proves 

 results. In abnormal and laborious comparatively easy, and obstetrical 

 parturitions not unfrequently Mare operations successful. 



and foal succumb. 



6. Difficult parturition proves a 6. Such parturitions are not of 

 Herculean task to the operator. much account to a practitioner 



skilled in the necessary operations. 



interference of man is needed to bring the sexes together. The period of gestation is thirteen months, at 

 the expiration of which the dam gives birth to one, or, as an exception, two, foals. Human assistance is 

 also required at the time of parturition. The new-bom Camel is the most helpless creature nnaginable ; it 

 must be lifted by hand and placed under the mother's teats ; but as soon as it can walk, it follows her 

 about everywhere, and the latter is so attached to her offspring, th.at she cannot bear to be separated from 

 it. The female Camel is granted its liberty for a whole year after parturition ; so that it only foals every 

 other y&2,x." —Mongolia, the Tangtit Country, and ike Solitudes of Northern Tibet, vol. i., p. 124. 

 London, 1876. 



