GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



263 



this animal appearing to be almost exempt from difficulties in parturi- 

 tion. In cases of raciiitism, however, there is sometimes so much de- 

 formity of the pelvis, that aid is required. Notwithstanding the narrow- 

 ness of the passage, the hand or fingers may be passed into them. 



Cases of dystokia are not unfrequent in the Bitch, and particularly if 

 it is of small size, or belongs to a breed with a large round head and 

 short nose. Numbers of Bitches perish every year from non-delivery of 

 their puppies ; these latter may also succumb before the decease of their 

 parent, as it often happens that the death of one entails destruction on 

 the others. Cats are sometimes subjects of difficult parturition, from the 

 same causes as Bitches. 



A very great disadvantage under which the veterinary obstetrist labors 

 in cases of dystokia, is the late period at which his services are gen- 

 erally called into request, and often after serious and even irreparable 

 injury has been done by unskilful hands ; and this in instances in which 

 a little scientific manipulation and some surgical knowledge would have, 

 perhaps, made all right and safe in a few minutes. Saint-Cyr justly 

 says, in commenting on some remarks made with regard to the services 

 a veterinary surgeon may render in difficult parturition, that these can be 

 beneficial only on the absolute condition that he is present in good time. 

 Called upon too late, when the " waters " have escaped for a long 

 period, and the neighboring empiric has exhausted his science, aggra- 

 vated a bad presentation, irritated the generative organs by manipula- 

 tions, tractions, and violent means ; then all the ability of the most ex- 

 perienced practitioner may be useless. He will find the passages dry, 

 burning, swollen by inflammation, the fcetus more or less advanced into 

 the pelvic cavity, where it is, it may be said, " wedged," or like a nail 

 driven into wood ; with the uterus spasmodically contracted on itself, 

 and so closely applied to the body of the fcetus that it is almost impos- 

 sible to pass the hand between them. How is it possible to manipulate 

 in such a place — how change the vicious position of a fcetus which the 

 greatest efforts can neither make advance or retire ? How can a sharp 

 instrument be carried into the uterine cavity, and used with safety, when 

 the hand alone can scarcely be made to enter it .-• 



It is in these circumstances that a practical knowledge of obstetricy is 

 most valuable, and renders he who possesses it a very great acquisition 

 to an agricultural or pastoral district. And this knowledge may be said 

 to be special ; for obstetricy is not like the other branches of veterinary 

 surgery, in forming a portion of every veterinarian's practice. On the 

 contrary, it is rarely practised in towns or cities, but is almost exclusively 

 limited to animal-rearing localities ; there alone is to be found the school 

 in which the practitioner may be initiated into all the difficulties of this 

 complex art, and the best and readiest means of surmounting them. And 

 it must be confessed that the practice of this art is not particularly allur- 

 ing, and is attended with many more inconveniences, hardships, and dif- 

 ficulties than fall to the lot of the human obstetrist; indeed, we know of 

 no more arduous and anxious occupation than that of the country prac- 

 titioner in a cattle-breeding district, and he requires physical endow- 

 ments which are certainly not needed by the attendant on woman. 



Veterinary accouchments are generally difficult and perplexing, as well 

 as fatiguing, says Zundel. Long and powerful arms are necessary, as 

 well as much address in using them and the fingers ; bodily activity is 

 above all essential, in order to go about an animal, to place one's self in 



