A. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FETUS IN AN ABNORMAL 

 POSITION IN THE UTERUS. 

 BICORNUAL PREGNANCY OR TRANSVERSE DE- 

 VELOPMENT OF THE FETUS. 



The uteri of domestic animals are so definite and characteristic 

 in their form that the}' usually admit of the development of the 

 fetus in but one position, in which the long axes of the uterine 

 cornu and the fetus must be parallel. In uniparous animals the 

 two cornua usually leave the rather ample body at an acute 

 angle, and the single fetus is almost inevitably developed in a 

 longitudinal position, somewhat equally in one of the cornua and 

 in the uterine body. 



In multiparous animals the inconspicuous uterine body is usu- 

 ally empty, and the fetuses are developed almost wholly in the 

 extensive cornu, in a longitudinal position. 



In the mare, however, the form of the uterus is such that it 

 may lead, as we have already stated on pages 28 and 379, to a 

 bicornual or transverse development of the fetus. 



The earliest account we have found of this abnormality is by 

 PauH, who, in Gurlt and Hertwig's Mag., 1842, Vol. 8, p. 196, 

 records attending in 1837, with two colleagues, a mare which 

 they could not deliver. Autopsy revealed a transverse fetus, 

 dorsal presentation, head, neck and anterior limbs in right 

 horn, hind feet in left horn, abdomen and chest occupying the 

 uterine body. 



So far as we are aware, definite attention was first drawn to 

 this anomaly by us, in an article entitled ' ' Transverse Develop- 

 ment of the Fetus in the Uterus of the Mare " in the American 

 Veterinary Review, Vol. 13, page 298. Later occurred a de- 

 scription of apparently the same anomaly by Anton Tapken, 

 Official Veterinarian in Varel, in the Monatshefte fiir Praktische 

 Tierheilkunde, Vol. 18, page 148, of which a translation by us 

 appeared, with added comments, in the Veterinary Journal, Vol. 

 XLIII, page 148. 



Bicornual development of the fetus is made possible in the 



mare because of the unique direction in which the two uterine 



cornua are given off from its body. Instead of leaving the 



uterus at an acute angle, as in ruminants and carnivora. they 



716 



