Foaling Time. 53 



" In cases of difficult parturition in the mare, much 

 skill, adroitness, patience, and resource, as well as physical 

 strength and agility, are required in dealing with the very 

 numerous and diverse obstacles that have to be encountered 

 and overcome if the lives of the foal and mother, or either, 

 are to be saved. More especially are judgment and manual 

 tact required in making an examination. This demands not 

 only a thorough knowledge of the internal anatomy of the 

 mare's generative organs, healthy and pathological, but 

 also an acquaintance by touch with all the surface and 

 different regions of the foal's body and limbs. Without this 

 knowledge and tactile facility it may be impossible to 

 understand the hindrance to birth, and to render assistance 

 by adopting proper measures or resorting to effective 

 manoeuvres. So that the amateur or unskilled operator is 

 likely to do more harm than good, and may even unawares 

 convert what - to an expert would prove a comparatively 

 simple case into a most difficult if not altogether hopeless 

 one." (Professor Axe.) 



Although the author rather prides himself on his rough 

 knowledge of the " internal anatomy of the mare's genera- 

 tive organs, healthy and pathological," he fully realises 

 that it would be the height of folly and presumption for 

 him to attempt to deal exhaustively and usefully in these 

 pages with so complicated and difficult a subject, fraught 

 as it might be with serious consequences to possibly price- 

 less live stock. The wiser course seems to be to suggest 

 that a thoughtful study of Professor Axe's chapter in " The 

 Horse," on " Breeding," profusely illustrated as it is with 

 cuts of " Malpresentations," would well repay any stud 

 groom. 



There are many varieties of " Malpresentation " ; the 

 following are those most frequently encountered: 1, hind 



