Forced Extraction 641 



We have frequently known empirics, who were not competent to 

 perform embryotomy when a foal presented anteriorly with the 

 two anterior limbs in the birth canal and the head completeh^ 

 deviated to the side, to apply a sufficient amount of brute force to 

 tear the fetus away in a most inhuman manner. Sometimes they 

 hitch a horse or horses to the foal, and tear it away very roughly. 

 One empiric in our territory resorted habitually to tying a strong 

 rope to the two anterior feet of the foal and fixing the other end 

 of it to a tree or a strong post, and then, by means of a whip or 

 other punishment, forcing the mare to pull away her own fetus 

 in a most brutal manner. So far as I was able to follow his 

 operations, they invariably resulted in the death of both the mare 

 and fetus. 



Other veterinary obstetrists advise forcible extraction in various 

 positions, though with more foresight and care. Some report 

 good results, but so far as we have learned never so good as 

 though embryotoni}' had been properly performed. 



Forced extraction should not be employed in most cases of 

 improper presentation or position of the fetus. It cannot succeed 

 in any transverse presentation, but only in those which are 

 longitudinal. 



Forced extraction should be limited, in its application, to those 

 cases where the fetus is comparatively large and in the normal 

 position, and in which the withdrawal of the fetus by force will, 

 in the judgment of the obstetrist, prove better for the interests 

 of the owner, as affecting the life of the mother, the fetus, or both, 

 than would other means of delivery ; and to those cases of un- 

 natural position or deviation of the extremities in wdiich it would 

 be better and safer for the mother or fetus, or both, to force the 

 fetus through the birth canal without its position having been 

 corrected. 



Per-sonally, we have limited forced extraction to those cases 

 where a large fetus, or a fetus of normal size enlarged becau.se of 

 emphj'.sema, presents in a normal po.sition, and in our experience 

 such a course has been fully warranted. We have already dealt 

 with the technic of forced extraction when dealing with instru- 

 ments of traction on page 586. 



III. Embryotomy. 



Embryotomy is the diminution of the size of the fetus by 

 means of the removal of some of its parts, in a manner to overcome 

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