164 THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OP 



in a direction towards the bones of the coccygis, or tail. In 

 the early stages of this kind of parturition, the back rests on 

 the belly of the mother, and the feet come in contact with her 

 spine ; if ray services were sought at this early period, I should 

 endeavor to bring the feet down^ one at a time, and noose 

 them, and proceed to deliver without making any futile at- 

 tempts to change the position of the calf 



In a case of this character which occurred in my practice a 

 short time ago, I found it impossible (the cow being down) to 

 dislodge the feet from the spinal region ; I therefore procured 

 a double and single block tackle, and fastened it to a beam 

 which ran across the barn ; the hind extremities were then at- 

 tached to the single block by means of straps, and in this way, 

 the posterior parts were elevated ; the consequence was, that 

 the whole foetal aparatus receded into the abdominal cavity, 

 the feet were dislodged from the spine, and I had the satisfac- 

 tion of delivering the animal of a live calf. 



The following case is related by Surgeon Cartwright, in the 

 Veterinarian : — 



*' On the 30th of April, 1850, Mr. came for me to 



see a cow, four years old, that could not calve. As in a for- 

 mer instance, another celebrated man at such work had been 

 in attendance on her, but from the state of the os uteri, he was 

 fairly frightened from making an attempt to remove it ; as, he 

 said, ' an operation' must be performed on it. I found her 

 well off at the hips, and about the vulva, well relaxed. On 

 introducing my hand into the vagina, I ascertained that the 

 OS uteri was dilated to about five inches in diameter, in an ap- 

 parent rigid state. On passing my hand through the os uteri, 

 I found that the calf lay on its back. The hind feet could be 

 felt, but they were doubled up at the fetlocks, and pressed 

 against the rectum and inside of the upper portion of the os 

 uteri. In consequence of the calf lying on its back, and its 

 feet being doubled up, the latter was not forced into the os uteri ; 

 from which cause the os uteri could not be dilated for the cow 

 to calve. I immediately got one of the legs straight, and 

 brought it forward into the vagina and passed a cord around it, 



