3i8 > MATERNAL DYSTOKTA. 



to fall on the opposite side. This being done, the animal is raised on its 

 chest, by the shoulder and quarter, and turned over on thQ side on which 

 it was thrown. In this way it will have made a complete rotation. 



While the assistants are rolling the Cow, the operator, with his hand 

 in the vagina or uterus, as the case may be, endeavors, by pressing in 

 the opposite direction, to keep the organ fixed and to prevent its following 

 the movement the body is undergoing. 



If the operation is well conducted, and the body of the Cow moved in 

 the proper direction, the obstetrist will find, as rotation is carried on, 

 that the genital passage is becoming wider and the obstacle disappearing, 

 until, the spiral rings having become effaced, the hand can reach the cer- 

 vix and penetrate the uterus if the os is relaxed. Generally a gush of the 

 liquor amnii from the organ announces the termination of the operation. 



If, however, the hand is more strongly compressed by the spiral folds 

 as the animal is turned on its axis, and the vaginal canal is diminishing 

 in length, it is a proof that rotation is effected in the wrong direction. 

 This is remedied, of course, by reversing the movement. 



Sometimes it is sufficient to make the animal execute a complete turn 

 to bring the uterus into its usual position. More frequently, however, 

 this rotation only relaxes the constriction and does not entirely efface 

 the rings ; so that it is necessary to continue the turning — always in the 

 same direction — until the desired result has been obtained. Then par- 

 turition can be completed in the ordinary way. 



It will be seen from this description that the method consists simply in 

 rolling the Cow as one would roll a barrel ; and the only point now to be 

 discussed, is the direction in which it should be rolled. 



This point, strange to say, has given rise to as warm and as unsatisfac- 

 tory discussions as some of the other points to which reference has al- 

 ready been made. Some authorities have declared that, to achieve the 

 reduction of the torsion, the Cow must be rolled in the same direction as 

 it ; others assert thit the rolling should be contrary to the torsion ; while 

 others, again, pretend that both procedures are correct, according as in 

 one the uterus is maintained fixed, while in the other it remains free in 

 the abdominal cavity. 



The confusion imported into the discussion was probably largely due 

 to the manner in which each disputant looked at the question — or, rather,: 

 to the position in which he mentally placed himself during the supposed; 

 operation. For instance, one may have fancied an animal in a standing] 

 attitude placed before him ; another, with a Cow lying on its back ; an- 

 other stood in front of the beast ; another imagined he was behind it ; and; 

 another stood at its right side, while a seventh viewed it from the left. 

 Consequently, each discussed the torsion, and the mode of remedying it^ 

 by rolling, from his own particular point of view j so that the terms they' 

 employed in the discussion could not fail to be contradictory. 



Fortunately, in practice no great harm could result ; as in whatever* 

 direction the torsion may have existed, and however baffling the spiral] 

 curving of the vaginal rugae may have appeared in bad cases, the grand? 

 test and guide was the effect produced by rolling. If, when the Cow was 

 turned to the right, the vagina became shorter and more firmly constricted, 

 then it was evident that the animal was being rolled in the wrong direc-; 

 tion, and rolling to the left was indicated, when the constriction would be^ 

 diminished and the vagina lengthened. The procedure might be empiri- 

 cal ; nevertheless it was invaluable. 



