112 The Practical Stud Groom. 



violence, introduces the left arm into the vagina. The right 

 hand then passes the inseminator into the vagina, where its 

 nozzle is gripped by the fingers of the left hand and guided 

 into the pool of semen lying there, and held firmly while the 

 right hand draws up the piston rod of the inseminator, and 

 thus picks up a charge of semen. The best type of instru- 

 ment is fitted with a small glass slide which enables the 

 operator to make certain that semen has been collected. 

 Having ascertained this to be the case, the inseminator is 

 again pushed forward, and is carefully introduced with the 

 fingers of the left hand through the os and well into the 

 womb; the piston rod is pushed down with the right hand 

 and the charge of semen expelled, thus completing the opera- 

 tion. I need hardly point out that in the case of twisted or 

 deformed os great care should be taken that brute force is 

 not used to gain a passage for the nozzle of the inseminator. 

 An examination should be made previous to the service, and 

 the direction of the twist ascertained by dilating the os with 

 a forefinger. 



Another case for the use of the inseminator is that of 

 abnormal shortness of the vagina sometimes present in 

 mares, usually with young maiden fillies. The result of this 

 condition of the vagina is that the organ is forcibly pushed 

 forward by the horse's penis during service, and rebounds 

 with such force when the penis is withdrawn, as to expel all 

 the semen on to the ground. All that can be done under 

 these circumstances is to have an assistant, as the horse dis- 

 mounts, ready with a warmed tin cup in which to catch the 

 semen as it is expelled. It is then gathered up by the 

 inseminator, and placed into the womb as described above. 

 Some dexterity is required to prevent the cup being struck 

 by the stallion's foreleg when dismounting, and no time 

 should be lost in transferring the semen to the womb, as a 



