556 OBSTETRIC OPERATIONS. 



Sheep which were slaughtered, the foetus moved about in a very lively 

 manner for eight to ten minutes, but death ensued soon after. 



Sauer observed an unusual instance of fcetal vitality in a Bitch which 

 could not be delivered, and was poisoned by cyanide of potassium. 

 Eight minutes after death the foituses were observed to move in the 

 abdomen, and this and the uterus being opened, they were extracted 

 alive. 



After fifteen minutes, Franck has found in slaughtered Sheep that the 

 foetus was usually asphyxiated ; and he concludes that during the first 

 eight minutes after the death of the parent, the foetus can be extracted 

 alive (if alive before the parent died) ; even towards fifteen minutes there 

 is a chance of preserving it, but by that time it is usually dead. When 

 extracted late, and in the first stage of asphyxia, though it may rally for 

 a short time, yet it usually succumbs to inflammation of the lungs — 

 through the amniotic fluid having penetrated into the air-passages during 

 the convulsive gasps the young creature makes. 



There can be no doubt that much of the great mortality which follows 

 the operation, is due to the circumstances amid which it is undertaken. 

 It is, as a rule, never resorted to until every other means to deliver the 

 animal has failed, and the creature, worn out by suffering, is already 

 almost dead. In addition to this, the foetus itself — subjected to long- 

 continued and severe manipulation — is either dying or dead ; indeed, it 

 may have perished days before, and, becoming putrid, has already in- 

 fected the parent." 



Death is usually due, when not immediate, to putrid infection — to peri- 

 tonitis or metro-peritonitis. This is more particularly the case with the 

 Bitch, in which, when the operation is performed early, and the young are 

 extracted alive, recovery generally takes place ; though Franck remarks, 

 that wherever the green coloring matter of the placenta imparts a simi- 

 lar tint to the textures it comes in contact with, very often septic inflam- 

 mation begins there. The same authority points out that there is no 

 great reason otherwise why death should be a frequent result of the ope- 

 ration, when we consider the hundreds of similar operations performed 

 in the study of embryology, by Bischoff and others, on Bitches, Guinea- 

 pigs, and Rabbits, the majority of which did not have a fatal termination. 

 He also alludes to the success of Nature's Caesarean section, when we 

 have mummification and maceration of the foetus, consequent on occlu- 

 sion of the OS uteri, and the remains of the creature find their way out 

 by another channel without much disturbance to the mother. 



The most dangerous cases for operation are those in which the foetus 

 is dead, and more or less decomposed. 



Indications. 



The operation should only be resorted to in those cases in which de- 

 livery by the natural passages — the foetus being alive — is altogether im- 

 possible, or so difficult and dangerous that the mother incurs nearly as 

 much risk as from gastro-hysterotomy itself, while the young creature 

 must be sacrificed ; or when the owner prefers having the latter alive, in- 

 stead of incurring the risk of losing both — the progeny being the most 

 valuable. The operation is therefore likely to be demanded in those 

 deformities of the pelvis produced by fractures, exostoses, etc.^ which 

 considerably diminish its canal, intra-pelvic tumors, hernia of the uterus, 



