264 DYSTOKIA. 



the most favorable position for exploring and operating, and to avoid 

 injury from the creature. The veterinary obstetrist should also be gifted 

 with presence of mind, coolness, and fertility of resource; so as to take 

 into consideration all the circumstances of the case, devise his method of 

 procedure, and carry it out promptly. 



The conditions under which the veterinarian has to perform his task 

 are not favorable or encouraging. It is any thing but easy to practise 

 the necessary manipulations in the larger animals — such as the Mare or 

 Cow — in such a great cavity as the abdomen, and in the uterus which 

 lies deep in it, and contains a voluminous foetus. In practising these 

 manipulations, the operator has to contend with the struggles and dis- 

 ordered movements of the animal, which sometimes, in the midst of its 

 sufferings, does not hesitate to use its feet, horns, or teeth as weapons of 

 defence, or to crush its medical attendant against the adjoining wall. In 

 addition, the violent contractions of the uterus, and especially of the cer- 

 vix, fatigue the operator extremely. Sometimes these manipulations are 

 continued for hours, until the various obstacles to delivery are successively 

 overcome, or the creature is doomed to perish. 



Add to this, that Cows and Mares during parturition often inhabit close 

 foul stables, with a poisonous atmosphere, destitute of light, and perhaps 

 also cold and damp. Here the veterinarian must do his duty — cold, wet, 

 and dirty, exposed to draughts and every kind of discomfort. Most 

 frequently, too, he is left to his own resources ; for it is rare that intelli- 

 gent and obedient assistants can be found in such places. And all this 

 after driving long distances, often at night and in bad weather. How 

 different to the accoucheur of woman ! 



All the inconveniences, risks, and hardships of the veterinary obstetrist 

 do not end here. After manipulations, sometimes long continued, in a 

 uterus containing infective matter resulting from retention of a dead foetus, 

 or fcetal membranes in process of decomposition, he is exposed to the 

 most serious septic diseases, and may even lose his life. A cutaneous 

 eruption indeed often appears on the arms of the operator, only through 

 having manipulated for some time in genital organs, the mucous mem- 

 brane of which was only irritated and inflamed, or simply swollen and 

 bruised — no putrefaction or suppuration being present. Most frequently 

 the disease is merely local, and is sometimes a simple, limited, erythe- 

 matous redness which disappears in tweni^y-four hours ; at other times it 

 is a trifling eczema without pustules, but with intense itching ; frequently 

 it is a pustular, sometimes confluent, ecthyma, the crusts on which are 

 occasionally not detached for months ; in other cases there are furuncles, 

 abscesses on the arm, or even over the body. In the majority of cases, 

 the affection is accompanied by fever, anorexia, great uneasiness, and 

 pains so acute that sleep is impossible ; there may also be tumefaction of 

 the axillary glands. The course of the disease is generally irregular, 

 relapses are common, and it is a long time before its effects pass off. 

 Death sometimes occurs, and amputation of a portion of the arm has been 

 necessary.* Such are the difficulties and risks of the veterinary accou- 

 cheur. We will now refer more particularly to his line of conduct in 

 practice. 



. Proprietors of animals should, in their own interests, suffer no delay to 

 occur in sending for the veterinary surgeon as soon as they perceive that 

 parturition is not progressing regularly; and they should carefully abstain 



* Veterinary yournal, vol. ii., p. :!i8. 



