DISEASES FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 221 



If at times it is difficult to start this extraction it may be necessary 

 to get the finger nail inserted between the two, and once started the 

 finger may be pushed on, lifting all the villi, in turn, out of their 

 cavities. This process of separating the cotyledons must be carefully 

 conducted, one after another, until the last has been detached and the 

 afterbirth comes freely out of the passages. I have never found any 

 evil result from the removal of the whole mass at one operation, but 

 Shaack mentions the eversion of the womb as the possible result of 

 the necessary traction, and in cases in which those in the most distant 

 part of the horn of the womb can not be easily reached, he advises 

 to attach a cord to the membranes inside the vulva, letting it hang 

 out behind, and to cut off the membranes below the cord. Then, after 

 two or three days' delay, he extracts the remainder, now softened and 

 easily detached. If carefully conducted, so as not to tear the cotyle- 

 dons of the womb, the operation is eminently successful; the cow 

 suffers little, and the straining roused by the manipulations soon sub- 

 sides. Keeping in a quiet, dark place, or driving a short distance at 

 a walking pace, will serve to quiet these. When the membranes 

 have been withdrawn, the hand, half closed, may be used to draw 

 out of the womb the offensive liquid that has collected. If the case 

 is a neglected one, and the discharge is very offensive, the womb must 

 be injected as for leucorrhea. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE VAGINA (VAGINITIS). 



This may occur independently of inflammation of the womb, and 

 usually as the result of bruises, lacerations, or other injuries sustained 

 during calving. It will be shown by swelling of the lips of the vulva, 

 which, together with their lining membrane, become of a dark-red or 

 leaden hue, and the mucous discharge increases and becomes whitish 

 or purulent, and it may be fetid. Slight cases recover spontaneously, 

 or under warm fomentations or mild astringent injections (a tea- 

 spoonful of carbolic acid in a quart of water) , but severe cases may go 

 on to the formation of large sores (ulcers) , or considerable portions 

 of the mucous membrane may die and slough off. Baumeister re- 

 cords two cases of diphtheritic vaginitis, the second case in a cow four 

 weeks calved, contracted from the first in a newly calved cow. Both 

 proved fatal, with formation of false membranes as far as the interior 

 of the womb. In all severe cases the antiseptic injections must be 

 applied most assiduously. The carbolic acid may be increased to 

 one-half ounce to a quart, or chlorin water, or peroxid of hydrogen 

 solution may be injected at least three times a day. Hyposulphite of 

 soda, 1 ounce to a quart of water, is an excellent application, and the 

 same amount may be given by the mouth. 



