MECHANICAL EXTRACTION OF THE FCETUS. 519 



acknowledged to be rather an instrument for holding or fixing a certain 

 region, and not for exercising tractile force upon. Andre has often 

 applied it successfully to the lower and upper jaw, or the ear, to bring the 

 head into a good position ; to the te7ido-Achilles in order to raise a hind 

 limb, which the hand alone could not do ; to the fore-limbs, etc. 



With regard to the smaller animals, such as the Bitch, Sow, Sheep, or 

 Goat, in them we may often use the crotchet, the ordinary forceps, or a 

 small-sized model of the human forceps, with advantage. Various pat- 

 terns are in use, some of them fenestrated, others not ; some resemble 

 polypus-forceps, while others again are grooved, serrated, or toothed, at 

 the ends of the blades. An essential which should not be lost sight of in 

 the forceps for such small animals as the Bitch or Cat, is that the blades 

 should be sufficiently long to seize not only the head, but much, if not all 

 of the body of the fcetus. If they are short in the blades, they cannot 

 be made to grasp sufficient of the foetus to remove it ; while the joint 

 being close to the vulva, or even within the vagina, is likely to pinch the 

 mucous membrane and cause them other considerable pain. 



Hill, of Wolverhampton, who has had extensive experience in this 

 direction, uses a small and slightly modified form of the human forceps 

 for Bitches ; there is a spring between the branches of the handle (Fig. 

 175)- 



Fig. 174. 

 Andre's Crotchet-Forceps. 



Weber has proposed a forceps for these small animals, and it has been 

 preferred by some authorities to the ordinary model. It is a modification 

 of one for a long time employed by Leblanc, which again was fashioned 

 after an instrument designed by Hunter. This is composed of an iron 

 stalk about ten inches in length, with a wooden handle at one end, and 

 two blades or bows at the other. On this stalk glides a long enveloping 

 metal tube, which, near the handle, has a wide ferule or shield, that allows 

 it to be pushed along by the thumb of the hand holding the instrument, 

 and thus to bring the blades together. A nut or female screw, running 

 on a screwed portion of the stalk near the handle, is intended to assist 

 the pressure of the thumb, when this is insufficient (Fig. 176). A finger 

 of the other hand introduced into the vagina guides the instrument, and 

 allows the part of the fcetus to be seized, to be reached by the operator, 

 either v/ith the view of extracting the young creature or changing its 

 position, according to the indications. 



Defays concludes that the forceps employed by veterinary surgeons in 

 the accouchement of the smaller animals should not be merely a reduc- 

 tion in size of those employed in human practice, but ought to be some- 

 thing like that of Palfin. It is most difficult, he truly says, to apply an 

 instrument in shape like that of the accoucheur's ordinary forceps, owing 

 to the neck of the ftus in carnivoraoe being so thick, and the difference in 



