532 OBSTETRIC OPERATIONS. 



CHAPTER II. 



Embryotomy. 



Embryotomy, or embryuicia, is the name given to ever}' operation which 

 has for its object the reduction in volume of the foetus at parturition, by 

 mutilating or dividing it ; so as to allow it to be extracted by portions, 

 when it cannot be delivered whole. It is a generic term for a number of 

 operations very different in their character, and performed on the foetus 

 either while it is wholly retained in the uterus, or more or less engaged 

 in the genital passage. 



These operations may be practised on various parts of the young 

 creature : head, limbs, or body, and faciliate the removal of one or more 

 parts, so that the remainder can be removed from the uterine cavity. Of 

 course, the life of the foetus, if it be alive, is sacrificed in every case ; and 

 this sacrifice is only made to prevent a greater loss — the death of the 

 parent. But in resorting to embryotomy, the veterinary obstetrist is not 

 hampered by those gr^ve considerations which, in a legal, moral, and re- 

 ligious point of view, have so long embarrassed the action of the accou- 

 cheur of woman. 



The question with the veterinary surgeon, should the foetus be living, is 

 as to the respective value of parent and offspring, and which of these 

 should be preserved in the interest of the owner. 



In nearly every instance the response is entirely in favor of the parent, this 

 being of most commercial value ; and this fact^ together with the absence 

 of legal and moral objections, will account for embryotomy being much 

 more frequently practised in veterinary than in human obstetrics. Never- 

 theless, the destruction of the living foetus in the case of domesticated 

 animals should not be lightly entertained ; it is the duty of the veterina- 

 rian, in the interest of his client, to preserve the life of the young creature 

 as well as that of the parent, by every means in his power ; and it is not 

 until these means have been fairly tried, or are deemed insufficient after 

 due deliberation and without trial, that the necessary mutilation shquldbe 

 undertaken. And it must not be forgotten that embryotomy is not always 

 without danger for the parent ; on the contrary, it is nearly always 

 serious, and its consequences have often to be dreaded, while to the 

 operator it is in the great majority of cases a heavy and fatiguing task. 



When the foetus is not dead, then it is only the most urgent necessity 

 that should impel the obstetrist to resort to embryotomy ; though when 

 the creature has perished there is no need for hesitation, and the opera- 

 tion maybe undertaken at once, if the operator is satisfied that extraction 

 cannot be readily effected otherwise. 



We have already indicated the conditions which generally require re- 

 course to embryotomy. These are deformities of the maternal pelvis — 

 either congenital or acquired, constitutional or accidental — which prevent 

 extraction of the intact foetus, this condition being, however, very rare 

 in animals; hysterocele ; disproportion between the size of the foetus and the 

 genital canal ; certain kinds of monstrosity ; particular malprese?itatio?is and 

 malpositions^ as well as irreducible distortions of the foetus ; death of the 



superiority of the former over the latter. Chassagny gives his reasons for preferring the one to the other- 

 (thev are the same as those which have been expresse'd by veterinary obstetrists for many years), in a well 

 written article in the Gazette Medicale d^ Lyon for 1861 ; while Joulin, a year afterwards, in his work on 

 midwifery {Traiti comf>let d' Accouchements, Paris, 1862), points out in the clearest manner the great 

 advantages of his means of extraction. 



