42 o . FCETAL DYSTOKIA. 



the heads were extracted, and cut off at their junction with the atlas. The neck was now 

 pushed back, the fore limbs lifted up, and with a little assistance the body of a well-de- 

 veloped calf was extracted. The creature was alive at an earlier period, and Shipley 

 had no doubt that it could have been delivered more easily than by cording the lower 

 jaws and using a halter over the head. The spinal cord was single ; the cerebrum on 

 each side was fairly developed; the cerebellum was only "semi-double;" the two 

 tongues were nearly perfect. 



3. Canu {Mem. de la Soc. du Calvados, etc., p. 362) mentions that a double-headed calf 

 was found behind a Cow one morning, and it was not known how delivery had been ef- 

 fected. It was alive, and sucked by either mouth. 



4. Rainard {Op, Cit., vol. i., p. 486) gives a very interesting account of a double-headed 

 kitten, which made a posterior presentation in the lumbo-sacral position. The body 

 having been extracted, the greatest difficulty was experienced in removing the head, 

 M'hich the finger introduced into the uterus discovered to be double. It was finally re- 

 moved by traction — first on one side of the body, then on the other — the young creature 

 dying during the manipulation. 



5. Forster (Franck, Op. Cit., p. 441) delivered a Cow of a double-headed calf, which 

 was affected with prolapsus cerebri ; no cutting was required — only manual assistance. 

 The calf lived for about sixty hours ; when it sucked by one mouth the milk escaped 

 from the other mouth. The junction of the heads took" place at the temporal bones, 

 immediately behind the orbit (Fig. 97). The Cow was a frequent bearer of twins. 



Franck gives a number of examples of this form of monstrosity, from 

 German veterinary literature. 



Celosomian Monstrosities. 



Those creatures which are more or less destitute of abdominal and 

 thoracic parietes, and otherwise deformed in various degrees, would ap- 

 pear to be somewhat frequently met with by the veterinary obstetrist. 

 The above designation for them will be recognized as that bestowed by 

 G. Saint-Hilaire, the name proposed by Gurlt being Schistosomas 7'eflexus 

 or contortiis (Fig. 88). They also are found more often in the Cow than 

 in other animals, the Sheep being next in the order of frequency. Of 

 forty-nine monstrosities referred to by Saint-Cyr, twelve belonged to this 

 order, and of these eleven were calves, and only one lamb. Our own 

 figures place the proportion of calves much higher. 



Perhaps this relative frequency, as Saint-Cyr remarks, is at least partly 

 due to the fact that the singularity of thfe malformation is so striking that 

 observers are more ready to publish cases of this kind ; while parturition 

 being always more or less laborious, empirics who may chance to be called 

 in cannot understand the anomaly, and the veterinary surgeon has at last 

 to be sent for. 



Diagnosis. 



The diagnosis of this malformation is not difficult to the practised 

 obstetrist. If the fcetal intestines are apparent at the genital orifice of 

 the mother, their small size indicates at once that they are those of the 

 foetus, while an exploration of the vagina and uterus will discover the 

 distorted body, with the viscera unprotected and floating freely about. 

 When nothing is visible externally, of course the diagnosis is more diffi- 

 cult ; and this difficulty is increased with certain presentations and posi- 

 tions of the foetus. When, for instance, this is anterior, and the spine is 

 greatly distorted, the hand will first meet the head, and around it all the 

 feet ; and it will be in vain for the obstetrist to attempt to separate these, 

 and to push back the posterior limbs in order to put the foetus in a good 

 position, as the rigidity of the crooked spine prevents this being accom- 

 plished. In other cases the presentation may be abdominal or posterior, 



