228 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



be operated on in this position, or if the cow is to be sacrificed a blow 

 on the head with an ax will secure quietude. Then the prompt cutting 

 into the abdomen and womb and the extraction of the calf requires no 

 skill. If, however, the cow is to be preserved, her two fore feet and the 

 lower hind one should be safely fastened together and the upper hind 

 one drawn back. Two ounces chloral hydrate, given by injection, 

 should induce sleep in twenty minutes, and the operation may proceed. 

 In case the cow is to be preserved, wash the right flank and apply a 

 solution of 4 grains of corrosive sublimate in a pint of water. Then, 

 with an ordinary scalpel or knife dipped in the above solution, make an 

 incision from 2 inches below and in front of the outer angle of the 

 hip bone in a direction downward and slightly forward to a distance of 

 12 inches. Cut through the muscles, and more carefully through the 

 transparent lining membrane of the abdomen (peritoneum), letting the 

 point of the knife lie in the groove between the first two fingers of the 

 left hand as they are slid down inside the membrane and with their 

 back to the intestines. An assistant, whose hands, like those of the 

 operator, have been dipped in the sublimate solution, may press his 

 hands on the wound behind the knife to prevent the protrusion of the 

 intestines. The operator now feels for and brings up to the wound the 

 gravid womb, allowing it to bulge well through the abdominal wound, 

 so as to keep back the bowels and prevent any escape of water into the 

 abdomen. This is seconded by two assistants, who press the lips of 

 the wound against the womb. Then an incision 12 inches long is made 

 into the womb at its most prominent point, deep enough to penetrate 

 its walls, but not so as to cut into the water bags. In cutting, care- 

 fully avoid the cotyledons, which may be felt as hard masses inside. 

 By pressure the latter may be made to bulge out as in natural parturi- 

 tion, and this projecting portion may be torn or cut so as to let the 

 liquid flow down outside of the belly. The operator now plunges his 

 hand into the womb, seizes the fore or hind limbs, and quickly extracts 

 the calf and gives it to an attendant to convey to a safe place. The 

 womb may be drawn out, but not until all the liquid has flowed out, and 

 the fetal membranes must be separated from the natural cotyledons, 

 one by one, and the membranes removed. The womb is now emptied 

 with a sponge, which has been boiled or squeezed out of a sublimate 

 solution, and if any liquid has fallen into the abdomen it may be 

 removed in the same way. A few stitches are now placed in the wound 

 in the womb, using carbolized catgut. They need not be very close 

 together, as the wound will diminish greatly when the womb contracts. 

 Should the womb not contract at once it may have applied against it a 

 sponge squeezed out of a cold sublimate solution, or it may be drawn 

 out of the abdominal wound and exposed to the cold air uqtil it con- 

 tracts. Its contraction is necessary to prevent bleeding from its enor- 

 mous network of veins. When contracted the womb is returned into 

 the abdomen and the abdominal wound sewed up. One set of stitches, 



