DISEASES OP THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 197 



into the vagina finds the neck of the womb firmly closed, rigid, and 

 undilatable. If it is known that the cow has not reached her proper 

 time of calving, the examination through the vagina should be omitted 

 and the animal should be placed in a dark, quiet place by herself, and 

 be given 1 to 2 ounces laudanum. Viburnum prunifoliuin, 1 ounce, may 

 be added, if necessary, and repeated in three hours. The pains will 

 usually subside. 



In some instances the external parts are relaxed and duly prepared, 

 but the neck of the womb remains rigidly closed. In such a case the 

 solid extract of belladonna should be smeared around the constricted 

 opening and the animal left quiet until it relaxes. 



DISEASED INDURATION OF THE MOUTH OF THE WOMB. 



From previous lacerations or other injuries the neck of the womb may 

 have become the seat of fibrous hardening and constriction, so as to 

 prevent its dilatation when all other parts are fully prepared for calv- 

 ing. The enlarged, flabby vulva, the sinking at each side of the rump, 

 the full udder and drooping abdomen indicate the proper time for calv- 

 ing, but the labor pains secure no progress in the dilatation of the mouth 

 of the womb, and the oiled hand introduced detects the rigid, hard, and, 

 in some cases, nodular feeling of the margins of the closed orifice, which 

 no application of belladonna or other antispasinodie suffices to relax. 

 Sponge tents may be inserted or the mechanical dilator (Plate xx. Fig. 

 6) may be used if there is opening enough to admit it, and if not a 

 narrow-bladed probe- pointed knife (Plate xxiv, Fig. 2) may be passed 

 through the orifice and turned upward, downward, and to each side, cut- 

 ting to a depth not exceeding a quarter of an inch in each case. This 

 done a finger may be inserted, then two, three, and four, and finally all 

 four fingers and thumb brought together in the form of a (;one and made 

 to push in with rotary motion until the whole hand can be introduced. 

 After this the labor pains will induce further dilatation, and finally the 

 presenting members of the calf will complete the process. 



TWISTING OF TIIK NECK <F THE AVoMH. 



This is not very uncommon in the cow, the length of the body of the 

 womb and the looseness of the broad ligaments that attach it to the 

 walls of the pelvis favoring the twisting. It is as if one were to take 

 a long sack rather loosely filled at the neck and turn over its closed 

 end so that its twisting should occur in the neck. The twist may be 

 one-quarter round, so that the upper surface, would come to look to one 

 side, or it may be half round, so that what was the upper surface 

 becomes the lower. The relation of the womb of the cow to the upper 

 and right side of the paunch favors the twisting. The paunch occu- 

 pies the whole left side of the abdomen and extends across its floor to 

 the right side. Its upper surface thus forms an inclined plane, sloping 

 from, the left downward and to the right, and on this sloping surface 



