354 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



alike tend to reproduce their personal defects which predis- 

 pose to disease, but the dam is far more likely to perpetuate 

 the evil in her progeny which was carried while she was 

 personally enduring severe suffering caused by such defects. 

 Hence an active bone spavin or ringbone, causing lameness, 

 is more objectionable than that in which the inflammation 

 and lameness have both passed, and an active ophthalmia is 

 more to be feared than even an old cataract. For this reason 

 all active diseases in the breeding mare should be soothed 

 and abated at as early a moment as possible. 



EXTRA-UTERINE GESTATION. 



It is rare in the domestic animals to find the foetus devel- 

 oped elsewhere than in the womb. The exceptional forms 

 are those in which the sperm of the male, making its way 

 through the womb and Fallopian tubes, impregnates the 

 ovum prior to its escape, and in which the now vitalized and 

 growing ovum, by reason of its gradually increasing size, 

 becomes imprisoned and fails to escape into the womb. The 

 arrest of the ovum may be in the substance of the ovary it- 

 self (ovarian pregnancy), in the Fallopian tube (tubal preg- 

 nancy), or when by its continuous enlargement it has rup- 

 tured its envelopes so that it escapes into the cavity of the 

 abdomen it may become attached to any part of the serous 

 membrane and draw its nourishment directly from that 

 (abdominal pregnancy). In all such cases there is an in- 

 crease and enlargement of the capillary blood-vessels at the 

 point to which the embryo has attached itself so as to furnish 

 the needful nutriment for the growing offspring. 



All appreciable symptoms are absent unless from the death 

 of the foetus or its interference with normal functions gen- 

 eral disorder and indications of parturition supervene. If 

 these occur later than the natural time for parturition they 

 are the more significant. There may be general malaise, 

 loss of appetite, elevated temperature, accelerated pulse, 

 with or without distinct labor pains. Examination with the 

 oiled hand in the rectum will reveal the womb of the natural 

 unimpregnated size and shape and with both horns of one 

 size. Further exploration may detect an elastic mass apart 



