PREGNANCY. 155 



From the seventh or eighth month onward the foal may be felt by 

 the hand (palm or knuckles) pressed into the abdomen in front of the 

 left stifle. The sudden push displaces the foal toward the opposite 

 side of the womb, and as it floats back its hard body is felt to strike 

 against the hand. If the pressure is maintained the movements of 

 the live foal are felt, and especially in the morning and after a drink 

 of cold water or during feeding. A drink of cold water will often 

 stimulate the fetus to movements that may be seen by the eye, but 

 an excess of iced water may prove injurious, even to the causing of 

 abortion. Cold water dashed on the belly has a similar effect on the 

 fetus and equally endangers abortion. 



Examination of the uterus with the oiled hand introduced into the 

 rectum is still more satisfactory, and if cautiously conducted no more 

 dangerous. The rectum must be first emptied and then the hand car- 

 ried forward until it reaches the front edge of the pelvic bones below, 

 and pressed downward to ascertain the size and outline of the womb. 

 In the unimpregnated state the vagina and womb can be felt as a sin- 

 gle rounded tube, dividing in front to two smaller tubes (the horns of 

 the womb) . In the pregnant mare not only the body of the womb is 

 enlarged, but still more so one of the horns (right or left), and on 

 compression the latter is found to contain a hard, nodular body, float- 

 ing in a liquid, which in the latter half of gestation may be stimulated 

 by gentle pressure to manifest spontaneous movements. By this 

 method the presence of the fetus may be determined as early as the 

 third month. If the complete natural outline of the virgin womb can 

 not be made out, careful examination should always be made on the 

 right and left side for the enlarged horn and its living contents. 

 Should there still be difficulty the mare should be placed on an in- 

 clined plane, with her hind parts lowest, and two assistants, standing 

 on opposite sides of the body, should raise the lower part of the 

 abdomen by a sheet passed beneath it. Finally the ear or stethoscope 

 applied on the wall of the abdomen in front of the stifle may detect 

 the beating of the fetal heart (one hundred and twenty-five per 

 minute) and a blowing sound (the uterine sough), much less rapid 

 and corresponding to the number of the pulse of the dam. It is 

 heard most satisfactorily after the sixth or eighth month and in the 

 absence of active rumbling of the bowels of the dam. 



DURATION OF PREGNANCY. 



Mares usually go about eleven months with young, though first 

 pregnancies often last a year. Foals have lived when born at the 

 three hundredth day, so with others carried till the four hundredth 

 day. With the longer pregnancies there is a greater probability of 

 male offspring. 



