GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 269 



Whatever is necessary to be done should be accomplished without de- 

 lay, so as to spare the animal pain and exhaustion. Sometimes parturition 

 is difficult because of the insufficiency of the expelling forces, as we have 

 already noticed, and this may be remedied by hygienic and therapeutic 

 means ; but more frequently, while the expulsive efforts are normal, there 

 is undue resistance. To increase the expelling forces in the latter in- 

 stances would evidently be unwarrantable and injurious, and we must 

 attack the resistance by various means, according to its character. 

 Obstacles in the genital passages must be overcome either by altering the 

 position of the foetus by manipulation, in changing the position of the 

 mother, or by other means ; and it often happens that we must combine 

 extraneous force with the expulsive efforts of the mother, in order to ex- 

 tract the foetus artificially. At other times the size of the foetus must be re- 

 duced by embr3^otomy, and in extreme cases an artificial passage has to be 

 made for it by hysterotomy ; though these dangerous operations may be 

 occasionally averted by causing artificial abortion, at a period when the 

 foetus is sufficiently small to be safely expelled through a contracted 

 pelvis. 



There is no occasion, in veterinary obstetrics, to hesitate in sacrificing 

 the life of the foetus in serious cases ; and in this respect the practitioner 

 is in a different position to \\\^ accoucheur oi woman-kind. With animals 

 there is only a material loss to be looked at, and the foetus must always be 

 greatly inferior in value to the mother ; therefore, in order to save the 

 latter, it is more profitable to sacrifice the former. 



Such are the general principles which we believe to be applicable to 

 all cases of dystokia. These cases, as Saint-Cyr observes, are numerous 

 and various — more varied even in animals than in woman ; and in order 

 to study them beneficially, it is advisable to classify them in a methodical 

 manner. We will follow that authority in arranging and studying them in 

 the order given below. 



Synoptic Table of Causes of Dystokia in the Principal Domesticated 



Animals. 



Dystokia 



Maternal 



Foetal. 



Pelvic Constriction. 



Displacement and altered relations of the Uterus. 



Morbid alterations of the Maternal Organs. 



T J A ^ c{ Excess in Volume. ^ 

 Independent of | r):_„„e„ 



.he Presenta..! ^'o'^-^.i,,. ^Of the Foetus. 



t,ons,by: [ Multiparity. 

 Dependent on f interior. 



tSePre^enta. P-^J-bar. 

 tions : Sterno-abdominal. 



