28o 



MATERNAL DYSTOKIA. 

 Hernia of the Uterus — Hysterocele. 



Every description of ventral hernia may be viewed as more or less 

 tending to dystokia, from the important share the abdominal muscles 

 assume in the act of parturition ; and when there is a tendency to hernia 

 of any of the organs in this cavity, or when a hernia really exists, this is 

 likely to be increased during labor, and may complicate delivery. But the 

 case is generally all the more serious if the displaced organ is the gravid 

 uterus itself. 



Hernia of the uterus is certainly not a very common accident ; never- 

 theless, it is far from being rare, if we are to judge by the instances 

 recorded in veterinary literature, and it has been observed in the Mare, 

 Cow, Sheep, Sow, Goat, and Bitch — in all the more important domesti- 

 cated animals, in fact, and has often proved a very serious obstacle to 

 parturition. 



Fig. 67. 



Uterine Hernia: Mare. 



A B, Hernial Tumor ; C, Teat carried down by the Tumor. 



Origin and Symptoms in Ufiiparoiis Animals. 



The symptoms and other features of this accident rather differ in uni- 

 parous and multiparous animals. In such uniparous creatures as the 

 Mare and Cow, hernia of the uterus is generally not observed until preg- 

 nancy is pretty well advanced — towards the eighth or ninth month, or 

 even later in the Mare, and the seventh or eighth month in the Cow. 

 This delay is evidently due to the circumstance, that in the non-pregnant 

 animal the uterus is small, and closely fixed by its ligaments to the sub- 

 lumbar region ; so that if there is a breach in the abdominal walls, it is 

 either the intestine or omentum which passes through it. When, how- 



