298 MATERNAL DYSTOKIA 



With regard to \h.Q: frequency of the accident, this depends upon several 

 circumstances, the chief of which, perhaps, are related to the nature of the 

 country in which the animals are reared, as well as to the manner of 

 rearing them. This will explain, partly or wholly, why veterinarians in 

 one locality are familiar with the accident, while others with as extensive 

 experience never witness it. 



Leconte states that he has observed it about a dozen times, in between 

 three and four hundred cases of difficult parturition. Lemaire has met with 

 it seven times in four years ; and Rocco speaks of having witnessed about 

 thirty cases of uterine torsion during forty years' practice. 



Etiology. 



Torsion of the uterus ordinarily occurs towards the termination of preg- 

 nancy — about the eighth or ninth month, and its causes appear to be very 

 diverse, if we are to accept the numerous opinions which have been offered 

 on this point. 



The cause which, of all others, appears to operate most frequently in 

 producing this condition, is a slip ox fall, and particularly on the hind 

 quarters — croup or hocks. 



For this reason, uterine torsion is oftenest witnessed among Cows at 

 liberty in pastoral countries, where the ground is broken, intersected, or 

 hilly. Therefore it is, also, that the accident is not at all uncommon in 

 Switzerland and the hilly parts of South Germany; while it is almost un- 

 known on the plains, and is ve^y rare indeed among Cows kept in sheds. 



Sometimes the Cow has slipped upon its hind-quarters and tumbled over, 

 through coming in contact with another. Marlot and Liautard have seen 

 it arise'from a horn thrust in the flank by a companion Cow, the blow 

 throwing the foetus and the uterus round to the opposite side. It has 

 occurred in a Cow which was often butting with others, Chambon has 

 noted it in a Cow which was in the habit of rolling like a horse ; Dagou- 

 reau reports it occurring in a pregnant Cow which leapt on others like a 

 bull, and Liautard in another that used to get its fore feet in the manger. 

 Rocco states that it is produced in shoeing at the forge, when pregnant 

 Cows are either thrown down or put in the travis to be shod ; and Rueff 

 mentions a case in which it happened through casting a Cow for the pur- 

 pose of performing an operation on it. In other instances it has been 

 ascribed to falling when jumping a ditch, or slipping up when descending 

 a steep hill. 



Reynal, Mignon, Chambon, Weber, and others, appear to consider 

 meteorism as one of the most certain and most frequent causes of uterine 

 torsion, through the displacement of the viscera which the distension 

 occasions. Either the expansion of the rumen induces unusual and 

 inordinate movements on the part of the foetus ; or it acts directly on the 

 uterus, and produces displacement of the organ through the changes in 

 situation and relations imposed on the other . abdominal organs. Mr. 

 Cartwright, of Whitchurch, is of opinion that great distension of the 

 stomach may, either of itself, or especially in connection with a fall, cause 

 the uterus to be forced on one side, or twisted. 



Other authorities, among whom we find Ercolani, attribute the accident 

 to severe toil when Cows are worked — as in draught ; others, to deformity 

 or malposition of the foetus ; and others, again, think it may be mainly, 

 if not exclusively, due to the spontaneous and energetic movements of 



