RUPTURE OF THE UTERUS. 897 



A collar should be passed round the neck of the cow, composed of 

 web : a girth of the same material is then put round the body behind 

 the shoulders, and this is connected with the collar, under the brisket 

 and over the shoulder, and on each side. A second girth is passed 

 behind the first, and a little anterior to the udder, and connected with 

 the first in the same way. To this, on one side, and level with the 

 bearing, a piece of stout wrapping cloth or other strong material, 

 twelve or sixteen inches wide, is sewed or fastened, and brought over 

 the bearing, and attached to the girth on the other side in the same 

 manner. A knot on each side will constitute the simplest fastening, 

 and this pressing firmly on the bearing will effectually prevent the 

 womb from again protruding. If it should be necessary, another 

 piece may be carried from below the bearing over the udder to the 

 second girth, and a corresponding one, slit in order to pass on each 

 side of the tail, may reach from above the bearing to the upper part 

 of the second bandage. 



The cow should be kept as quiet as possible ; warm mashes and 

 warm gruel should be allowed ; bleeding should again be resorted to, 

 and small doses of opium administered if she should be restless, or 

 the pains should return ; but it will not be prudent during the first 

 day to give either those fever medicines, as nitre and digitalis, which 

 may have a diuretic effect and excite the urinary organs, or to bring 

 on the straining effect of purging, by administering even a dose of 

 saline medicine. Should tweuty-four hours pass and the pains not 

 i-eturn, the stitches may be withdrawn from the bearing, or the ban- 

 dage removed. 



Homoeopathic treatment. — The operation, returning the womb, be- 

 ing concluded, administer arnica internally, and throw up injections 

 of arnica water, which are very advisable, more especially when the 

 accident has been occasioned by difficult parturition, or when the 

 extractions of the after-birth have injured the womb. When there 

 is fever, and an inflammatory state, administer forthwith a couple of 

 doses of aconitum. If the accident have been produced by great 

 efforts in parturition, we must have recourse to sepia and to platina ; 

 and, if it make its appearance a little after calving, especially when 

 the mother is lying down, benefit will be derived from chiiia (two 

 doses each day). Pulsatilla and sepia are specifics when the fall of 

 the womb has been occasioned by efforts made to expel the placenta ; 

 if the anus has become depressed, cocculus would appear more par- 

 ticularly useful. 



RUPTURE OF THE UTERUS. 



Another more serious evil sometimes accompanies inversions of the 

 womb, namely, a laceration or rupture of that organ, effected either 

 by the unusually strong contraction of the womb, or by the violence 

 with which the feet of the calf are drawn forward in the unskillful treat- 



