DISEASES OF THE ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION IN THE FEMALE 97 



of it must inevitably be lost. Our efforts should be directed to sustaining 

 her general health, while facilitating the detachment of the destroyed 

 gland, and rendering the adjacent parts aseptic by frequent irrigation 

 with a solution of carbolic acid or some other disinfectant. 



The further treatment of the case will consist in the administration 

 of mineral and vegetable tonics, together with a generous diet, pure air, 

 and such gentle exercise as her condition will permit. The gland should 

 be frequently fomented, the sloughing portion gently detached, and strict 

 regard given to cleanliness of the apartment occupied, particularly in 

 respect of the bedding and floor of the box, which should be kept clean, 

 sprinkled with a carbolic powder in cold weather, or washed with a suitable 

 fluid disinfectant if the temperature will permit it. Anything like force in 

 removing the slough is to be deprecated, but its detachment may be con- 

 siderably hastened by judicious traction where the mass does not, by its 

 weight, assist in detaching itself. When the greater portion of the gland 

 has sloughed, the gaping wound left behind is very formidable looking, 

 and the disposition to repair is quite surprising to those who see such 

 cases for the first time, a few days sufficing to fill up the greater part of 

 the cavity, and a month usually serving to effect complete repair of the 

 injured structures, leaving only a cicatrix of much smaller proportions than 

 the tyro could possibly have imagined. 



While the healing process is going on, the wound should be kept 

 perfectly clean by gentle sponging, and frequent irrigation with some anti- 

 septic solution should be employed to guard against sepsis or blood- 

 poisoning. 



PARTURIENT FEVER 



Parturient fever can hardly be considered without reference to those 

 maladies which are its precursors, the chief of which are known as metritis, 

 and divided by pathologists into endo-metritis, as affecting or beginning 

 with the internal surface of the womb, and metro-peritonitis, where first 

 the womb is affected by inflammation, which is subsequently shared by the 

 peritoneal membrane investing it. Any difficulties connected with delivery 

 of the foetus which result in injury to the uterus of the mare may lead to 

 parturient fever, as the result of absorption of septic organisms. Although 

 injuries to the uterus exciting inflammation are mentioned above as the 

 chief, they are not the sole causes, as the entrance into the blood-stream 

 from any other point, as from the vagina, or possibly some muscular injury 

 not immediately associated with the generative system, may have the like 

 ill consequence of infecting the patient at a time when she is peculiarly 

 susceptible to invasion. 



VOL. II. 41 



