554 OBSTETRIC OPERATIONS. 



should De applied as close to the part as possible ; while cold water 

 irrigation should be maintained on the loins. 



Another result is metritis, or metro-vaginitis, which is rapidly fatal, and 

 in which we find the usual local lesions on making an autopsy. Sep- 

 tikaemia is also to be apprehended ; and to prevent it, it is well to 

 remove every source of putridity, or any thing likely to become putrid, 

 and to use plentifully a weak solution of carbolic acid (i to loo) or the 

 permanganate of potass in the interior of the uterus, and particularly 

 about the incisions in the cervix — even for some days after the operation. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Gastro-Hysterotomy, or the Csesarean Section. 



Gastro-hysterotomy, the Ccesarean Section^ or abdommal hysterotomy, is 

 an operation which has for its object the removal of the fcetus or foetuses 

 from the uterus of the parent, when they cannot be doWvered per vias 

 naticrales, by making an opening in that organ through the abdominal 

 walls, and thereby extracting them. 



This is a formidable and a serious operation, whether it is practised 

 on the human female or on animals. In the obstetricy of woman, it has 

 been resorted to from a very early period ; the Greeks knew it as 

 vffTspoToiJMToxiYj or i,ai3piosXxrj, though it is supposed that they only performed 

 it after the mother was dead, and to save the child. Persons thus born 

 were sacred to Apollo, and yEsculapius was designated the son of that 

 god, because it was believed he had been delivered by gastro-hysterot- 

 omy. Some strange notion appears to have been attached to this 

 method of delivery ; as among these old-world people, the person who 

 had been born by means of the operation was esteemed remarkable and 

 fortunate. Hence Claudius Caesar, Scipio Africanus, Ca^so Fabius, 

 Julius Caesar, and other more or less illustrious personages of old Rome, 

 received the surname of " Caesones " from being extracted by abdominal 

 incision from their mother's womb : " Quia caeso matris uteru in lucem 

 prodiscunt." At a later period these persons were designated " Caesares," 

 — a noble title ; though, as has been demonstrated, it is a mistake to 

 assert that it owes its origin to Julius Ceesar — this being merely his 

 patronym. 



Since these early times, abdominal hysterotomy has been often prac- 

 tised on woman ; but when it was first attempted on animals we cannot 

 yet be quite certain. Haller was led to believe that the Greek veterinari- 

 ans — Apsyrtus and Hierocles — knew and performed the operation on the 

 domesticated animals ; but this has been shown to be a mistake. Until 

 we arrive at the time of Bourgelat — the illustrious founder of veterinary 

 schools — in the latter half of the last century, we appear to have no evi- 

 dence that such an operation was ever proposed for animals. And even 

 Bourgelat only suggests it in cases in which the dam is attacked by 

 a dangerous disease when the period of gestation has nearly or quite 

 expired, and its life may be beneficially sacrificed in favor of its prog- 

 eny, which is to be quickly removed from the uterus. {Traite de la 

 Conformation Exterieure du Cheval, 1768.) In 1781, Brugnone {Trattaio 

 della Razzi di Cavalli, p. 406) intimates that this operation may be per- 



