292 



MA TERN A L D YSTOKIA . 



of difficult parturition — a problem not confined to the cowherds of France 

 only — was to discover if the calving Cow was not " barre'e " (obstructed), 

 if it had not the torche^ veliere, or portiere torse, torte, or tordue (cervix 

 twisted), terms employed according to the localities and dialects, and 

 which signify what Boutrolle has distinctly described. 



At the commencement of this century, however, we are informed by 

 Rainard that Maurin of Cantal, and Vieillard of Brioude, two of his pu- 

 pils, had witnessed this form of dystokia. 



" On January 13, 1823," says Maurin, " I was called upon to attend on an eight years 

 old Cow which was calving. This animal, which had an enormous belly, had remained 

 lying for four or five days, without appetite, and the pulse quick. It should have calved 

 towards the end of the previous December ; and indeed on the 26th and 27th of that 

 month, it exhibited symptoms of pain similar to those of labor, though the ' waters ' did 

 not escape. 



" These symptoms having disappeared, and every thing being tranquil, the proprietor 

 of the Cow thought that he had been deceived as to the precise period at which the 

 animal should have calved, and believed that the pains were merely due to accidental 

 colic, and had no relation to parturition. I endeavored to assure myself as to whether 

 the foetus was alive or dead, by strong pressure on the abdomen, in order to excite it to 

 movement if it chanced to be living ; but not succeeding in this, I was convinced that it 

 was dead. On trying to introduce my hand, I experienced my first difficulty in passing 

 the bulb of the vagina, which was so constricted that I was compelled to dilate it. Hav- 

 ing reached the e«d of the canal, I was able to assure myself that the cervix uteri 

 offered salient folds; as the index finger, with which I endeavored to penetrate the os, 

 found it contracted and plicated. As it appeared to me that the Cow must die, I recom- 

 mended the owner to sell it to the butcher. 



" On opening it, I found the small intestines in the vicinity of the uterus reddened for 

 a considerable extent. The uterus itself was turned round from right to left, and the 

 suspensory ligaments of the cornua were interlaced in one another. When the uterus 

 was opened, the calf was found with its back towards the right flank of the Cow. its 

 limbs being towards the left flank ; the cervix formed two very salient spiral turns, 

 which undoubtedly prevented its dilatation The body of the foetus did not present any 

 traces of putrefaction, although the ' waters ' had a foetid odor." 



Vieillard was able to distinguish this accident in a more evident manner than Maurin, 

 and during the life-time of the two Cows he was called in to see. These animals had 

 the uterus prolapsed, the cervix being external to the vulva, and the posterior part of 

 the organ showed three markedly-spiral folds. 



In Frarjce, other veterinary observers afterwards published similar cases, 

 the first in order being Lecoq, of Bayeux, who in 1837 '^^*^ occasion to 

 note this accident. In a Alemoire sur le part laborieiix {Comptes Rejidus 

 de la Societe Veterinaire du Calvados et de la Manc/ie, 1838), he expresses 

 his surprise at the silence prevailing among veterinary authorities with 

 regard to this condition, which was met with from time to time, and was 

 well enough known to breeders. In describing the symptoms he had 

 noted, Lecoq says : " The hand having been introduced into the vagina, 

 and pushed as far as the neck of the uterus, encountered a kind of valve 

 obstructing the entrance to the latter. I was beyond the part I had 

 taken for a valve, and had got into a narrow canal which had the form of 

 a screw {ayant la forme d'une vis). The Cow died on the following day 

 without having been delivered, and at the autopsy it was found that the 

 uterus was completely turned upside-down — the superior face having be- 

 come the inferior — and that this version had taken place from right to 

 left." 



The first Veterinarian, we believe, who observed — or, rather, who de- 

 scribed — a complete rotation of the uterus (the previous cases recorded 

 were only those of half-rotation), was Mazure, whose description is one 

 of the best we possess. It is published in the same periodical which 



