DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 225 



IS seized and cut or twisted off according to the size of tlie 

 animal. Then the next horn and ovary are brought out and 

 treated in the same way. The womb is now returned into the 

 abdomen, and the skin accurately sewed up. Evil results are 

 rare, though peritonitis may ensue from rough handling or 

 exposure, and abscess or calcification of the wound is not 

 unknown. 



Cows are castrated by making an incision through the 

 superior wall of the vagina just above the neck of the womb, 

 and inserting two fingers, by which the ovaries are withdrawn 

 and twisted off with a torsion instrument. Space will not allow 

 of a fuller description in this work. 



CASTRATION OF MALE BIRDS. 



The bird is placed on its back with the left leg pressed 

 against the abdomen and the right one stretched backwards 

 and outward, an incision is made inside the thigh large enough 

 to admit the finger, which is directed toward the back at the 

 point of union of the last ribs with the backbone. There the 

 testicles are felt in contact with each other, and are separately 

 detached with the nail and extracted through the wound. If 

 lost in the abdomen after detachment there is no matter, they 

 will adhere to the peritoneum and become absorbed. Lastly, 

 the wound in the skin is carefully sewed up with a fine thread. 



ABORTION. 



This consists of the expulsion of the fcctus before it can live 

 out of the womb, but in the lower animals the term has been 

 indiscriminately used for cases of premature parturition as weli. 



Causes. — Blows or pressure on the abdomen, slips, falls, 

 riding of animals in heat, diseases of the abdominal organs 

 (tympanitis from wet, frosted or musty fodder, inflammation of 

 the bowels, diarrhoea, poisoning by irritants taken with the food 

 or otherwise, renal calculi or other diseases of the kidneys or 



