376 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



EXCESSIVE SIZE OF THE FOETUS. 



It would seem that a small mare may usually be safely bred 

 to a large stallion, yet this is not always the case, and when 

 the small size is an individual rather than a racial charac- 

 teristic or the result of extreme youth the rule cannot be 

 expected to hold. There is always great danger in breeding 

 the young, small, and undeveloped female, and the dwarfed 

 representative of a larger breed, as the offspring tend to 

 partake of the large race characteristics and to show them 

 even prior to birth. When impregnation has occurred in 

 the very young or in the dwarfed female there are two alter- 

 natives to induce abortion or to wait until there are at- 

 tempts at parturition and to extract by embryotomy if im- 

 practicable otherwise. 



CONSTRICTION OF A MEMBER BY THE NAVEL, STRING. 



In man and animals alike the winding of the umbilical 

 cord round a member of the foetus sometimes leads to the am- 

 putation of the latter. It is also known to get wound around 

 the neck or a limb at birth, but in the mare this does not se- 

 riously impede parturition, as the loosely attached mem- 

 branes are easily separated from the womb and no strangula- 

 tion or retarding occurs. The foal may, however, die from 

 the cessation of the placental circulation unless it is speedily 

 delivered. 



WATER IN THE HEAD (HYDROCEPHALUS) OF THE FOAL. 



This consists in the excessive accumulation of liquid in 

 the ventricles of the brain so that the cranial cavity is en- 

 larged and constitutes a great projecting rounded mass occu- 

 pying the space from the eyes upward. (See Plate XIV, 

 Pig. 3.) With an anterior presentation (fore feet and nosa) 

 this presents an insuperable obstacle to progress, as the dis- 

 eased cranium is too large to enter the pelvis at the same 

 time with the fore arms. With a posterior presentation 

 (hind feet) all goes well until the body and shoulders have 

 passed out, when progress is suddenly arrested by the great 

 bulk of the head. In the first case the oiled hand intro- 



