DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 199 



balanced, the hind may be chosen as offering less risk of complication, 

 there being no head to get displaced. 



The first step in the treatment is to place a running noose on each 

 of the four feet, marking those of the fore limbs to distinguish them 

 from those of the hind ones. In case it is proposed to bring the 

 anterior extremities into the passage, a noose should also be placed 

 on the lower jaw. Then run the ropes attached to the two feet that 

 are to be pushed back through the ring of a cord carrier (PI. XXI, 

 fig. 5 ) , passing the rings down to the feet, and by the aid of the car- 

 rier push them well back into the womb and hold them there. Mean- 

 while drag upon the ropes attached to the two other feet so as to 

 bring them into the passage (or, in case of the anterior extremity, on 

 the two foot ropes and the head one) . The other feet must be pushed 

 back into the womb until the body of the calf is fully engaged in the 

 passages. After this they can no longer find an entrance, but must 

 follow as the body escapes. 



NEGLECTED AND AGGRAVATED CASES. 



In laying down the foregoing rules for giving assistance in critical 

 cases of calving it is not intimated that all cases and stages can be 

 successfully dealt with. Too often assistance is not sought for many 

 hours or even days after labor pains, and the escape of the waters 

 intimate the danger of delay. Not seldom the long delay has been 

 filled up with unintelligent and injurious attempts at rendering as- 

 sistance, violent pulling when resistance is insurmountable without 

 change of position, injuries to the vagina and womb by ill-considered 

 but too forcibly executed attempts to change the position, the repeated 

 and long-continued contact with rough hands and rougher ropes and 

 hooks, the gashes with knives and lacerations with instruments in 

 ignorant hands, the infecting material introduced on filthy hands and 

 instruments, and the septic inflammations started in the now dry 

 and tender passages and womb. Not infrequently the death, putre- 

 faction, and bloating of the calf in the womb render the case ex- 

 tremely unpromising and make it impossible to apply successfully 

 many of the measures above recommended. The labor pains of the 

 cow may have practically ceased from exhaustion; the passages of 

 the A^agina may be so dry, tender, friable, red, and swollen that it 

 requires considerable effort even to pass the oiled hand through them, 

 and the extraction of the calf or any portion of it through such a 

 channel seems a hopeless task; the womb maj'' be equally dry, in- 

 flamed and swollen, so that its lining membrane or even its entire 

 thickness is easily torn ; the fetal membranes have lost their natural, 

 unctuous and slippery character, and cling firmly to the dry walls 

 of the womb, to the dry skin of the calf, or to the hands of the op- 

 erator; the dead and putrefying calf may be so bloated with gases 



