MORBID ALTERATIONS IN THE GENITAL ORGANS. 351 



In some cases, however, towards the termination of pregnancy there 

 has been remarked a lisllessness or gradually increasing debility, which 

 has been so great at last that the animal assumed the recumbent position : 

 and could not get up without assistance. This general weakness has 

 been mistaken for paraplegia, and has sometimes been supposed to be 

 due to lumbago ; but it may have been merely a symptom of generalized 

 cancerous infection, the part itself being the seat of cancer. 



But in the great majority of cases, the existence of induration is not 

 suspected until parturition sets in, when the labor pains, which may con- 

 tinue for a long time, attract more than ordinary attention, as birth does 

 not take place. And not unfrequently during the pains, and more espe- 

 cially when the animal is lying, a livid, irregular-shaped, and nodulated 

 kind of tumor appears between the labia of the vulva ; this is the undi- 

 lated cervix uteri. 



In other instances, however, nothing is observable externally, and a 

 vaginal exploration is necessary. The cervix is then discovered to be 

 more or lass protruded into the vagina, and to form a voluminous, irregu- 

 lar, nodulated tumor which in some cases feels as hard as wood, and in 

 others it has a rugged, soft, and ulcerated surface. Some veterinary 

 obstetrists have described transverse rugae, composed of a solid, unyield- 

 ing, fibro-cartilaginous material, in the os. 



The OS is not always easily found, and it is sometimes so contracted, 

 that one finger cannot be introduced into it ; at other times it is not so 

 constricted, and the foetus may be felt through it. But in every case it is 

 irregular and deformed, deviated from its usual direction, and its walls 

 are greatly thickened, perhaps corrugated. Its degree of hardness and 

 thickness will indicate whether, and to what extent, it can be dilated ; and 

 this condition may not only involve the whole of the cervix, but also the 

 walls of the uterus itself, as w^ell as those of the vagina. 



When the cervix is ulcerated, the hand will be found covered with 

 blood after the examination. 



Diagnosis. 



The diagnosis or this condition must be left, to a large extent, to the 

 tactile impressions derived from a vaginal exploration. In some cases 

 an ocular inspection of the cervix may be possible, and the previous his- 

 tory of the case may also be useful in this direction. 



Prognosis. 



The influence of the induration on the act of parturition, will depend 

 upon the degree and extent of the alteration. If this is not very serious, 

 and does not implicate the organ very much, and particularly if the in- 

 duration is localized in some unimportant part, parturition, though pro- 

 tracted, may nevertheless be accomplished without assistance. Often, 

 however, the results are troublesome ; one of these being laceration of 

 the cervix, from its unequal dilatation. 



Though there is a great difference, pathologically speaking, between 

 the various alterations — for example, between simple fibrous transforma- 

 tion and cancerous degeneration — yet it is admitted that the most benig- 

 nant alteration' is infinitely more serious, from an obstetrical point of 

 view, than simple rigidity of the cervix, either in its immediate or remote 



