THE C^SAKIAN OPERATION. 



that when a cow produces two calves, one of them a bull-calf and 

 the other a heifer-calf, the male may become a perfect and useful 

 bull, but the female will be incapable of propagation, and will never 

 show any desire for the bull. The curious name of free-martin has 

 been given to this animal. That accurate inquirer, Mr. John Hun- 

 ter, spared no pains or expense to ascertain the real foundation of 

 this belief; and he availed himself of the opportunity of examining 

 three of these free-martins. In all of them there was a greater or 

 less deviation from the external form and appearance of the'cow ; 

 and in the head and the horns some appi'oach to those of the ox ; 

 "while neither of them had shown any propensity to breed. The teats 

 were smaller than is usual in the heifer ; but the outward appear- 

 ance of the bearing was the same. 



They were slaughtered, and he examined the internal structure of 

 the sexual parts : he found in all of them a greater or less deviation 

 from the form of the female, and the addition of some of the organs 

 peculiar to the male ; and he ascertained that they were in fact 

 hermaphrodites. 



It is not then a mere vulgar error that the female twin is barren ; 

 On the other hand, there are several well-authenticated instances of 

 these free-martins having bred. 



It would hence appear that the rule is, and a very singular anomaly 

 in natural history it is, that the female twin is barren, because she is 

 an hermaphrodite ; but in some cases, there not being this admixture 

 of the organs of different sexes, or those of the female pi^vailing, she 

 is capable of breeding. If the free-martin have entirely the appear- 

 ance of a cow, she will breed ; if she be coarse in the horn, and ox- 

 like, she will be barren. 



Inhere have been instances of the cow producing three and even 

 four calves at one birth. 



THE C^SARIAN OPERATION. 



Some practitioners have lately recommended, in desperate cases, 

 the opening of the side of the mother, and the extraction of the calf. 

 The circumstances must indeed be desperate which can justify such a 

 procedure. If, at the very earliest period of parturition, the veteri- 

 nary can ascertain that there is a malformation of the pelvis, which 

 will render delivery in a manner impossible, and the breed is a valua- 

 ble one, and the mother, with this malformation, would never again 

 be useful as a breedieg cow, and no violent attempts have been made 

 to extract the foetus — nothing has been done which could set up 

 inflammation, or give a disposition to inflammatory action ; or if it 

 can be clearly ascertained that there is a deformity in the foetus, an 

 enlargement of the head, or a general bulkiness, which will forbid its 



• • • 1 u 



being extracted either whole or piecemeal, the practitioner might be 

 justified in attempting this serious operation ; but in a later stage of 

 17* 



