PATHOLOGY OF PREGNANCY AND PARTURITION 437 



beings, owing to the shortness of the neck, malposition of the 

 head is almost inconceivable, but among the larger domestic 

 animals, such as foals, malpositions of the head are, owing to the 

 length of the neck, very common. A lateral position is especially 

 common, and after that positions in which the head is bent 

 downwards or backwards. 



Conditions depending on malposition of the fore-legs are 

 still more complicated ; here one or both ankles, or one or both 

 shoulders may present. 



Breech presentations both in women and female domestic 

 animals are abnormalities which tend to make labour more 

 difficult. In the former, those in which one or more limbs lie 

 beside the breech may be distinguished, and also those in which 

 the foot or knee comes down before the breech ; these may all 

 be again divided into two positions, according as the child's 

 back is turned towards the right or left side of the mother. If 

 the child's back is turned towards the back of the mother, the 

 position must be regarded as abnormal. Breech and footling 

 presentations have been recognised among savage peoples from 

 time .immemorial, before any more accurate diagnosis of the 

 presentation could be made. 



Among domestic animals besides pure breech presentations 

 there are malpositions of the hind limbs and malpositions of the 

 tail. The position of the young may thus be " lower " (or 

 towards the mother's belly), right or left (towards the mother's 

 corresponding flank), as normally among domestic animals the 

 back is turned towards the back of the mother. Malpositions 

 of the limbs are more serious in animals; in human beings they 

 are short and the joints are but little developed, but in domestic 

 animals the long limbs and powerful joints offer much more 

 resistance to the correcting hand of the accoucheur. It is, indeed, 

 utterly impossible to convert a breech presentation into a head 

 presentation in the case of domestic animals. 



If the human foetus does not present either by the head or 

 the breech, its position must be either transverse or oblique. In 

 the first case the long diameter of the child's trunk is parallel 

 with the transverse diameter of the uterus, and the head may be 

 found in the mother's right or left side; the back, the belly or 

 the right or left flank of the child may be downwards, and, 



