370 Veterinary Obstetrics 



velop into embryos. This arrangement results in a nodular 

 form suggesting the general appearance of a rosemary, the nodes 

 in the elongated organ being usually (juite equally distributed 

 throughout the entire length of the tube. In the uniparous 

 animal, in which the fetus, as a rule, is lodged partly in the 

 cornu and partly in the body of the uterus, the gravid cornu and 

 body increase far more rapidly in size and undergo greater 

 changes in structure than the non-gravid or vacant cornu. 



The blood vessels of the uterus undergo very rapid growth 

 during pregnancy. The non-gravid uterus is firmly contracted 

 and shows no great vascularity, so that operations upon it may 

 not be accompanied by great hemorrhage. When pregnancy 

 occurs, the arteries and veins very rapidly enlarge and increase 

 to many times their former volume, so that any injury or 

 wound of these ves.sels tends to cause more or less serious 

 hemorrhage. 



The density of the non-gravid organ, serves to differentiate 

 it from the intestines and other abdominal viscera, because 

 of its firmness upon palpation. During pregnancy this 

 density decreases very greatly and the organ soon comes to re. 

 semble, to the sense of touch, the intestines. This is very 

 markedly the case in the pregnant bitch, in which this change 

 in the density of the organ causes it, so far as the sense of touch 

 reveals, to so closely resemble the intestine as to occasionally 

 embarrass an operator when spaying a bitch which is unex- 

 pectedly pregnant. This decrease in the density of the organ 

 is attributed partly to the thickening and softening of the 

 highly active mucous membrane, partly to the enormous in- 

 crease in the number and volume of the arteries and veins 

 and partly to a relative decrease in the thickness of the walls 

 of the organ, owing to its very rapid distension, in which process 

 the growth in comparative thickness fails to keep pace with the in- 

 creased area. In the non-gravid uterus, there is present in the con- 

 tracted organ a reserve of tissue, which must later undergo very 

 rapid development. The non-gravid cornu is usually 50 to 

 100% thicker than the gravid cornu. 



The glands in the uterine mucosa become rapidl)- elaborated ; 

 the utricular glands become enlarged, they increase in length and 

 width and their secretions become augmented. In the ruminant 



