DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 159 



months of gastation the skin may often be seen pushed out at a 

 sharp angle, irrespective of the period of drinking. 



Another mode of examination through the flank is by touch. The 

 palm of the hand is pressed strongly inward, about 8 inches in front of 

 the stifle and a little below, several times in succession, and is then 

 brought to rest with the pressure maintained. Presently there are felt 

 distinct and characteristic movements of the fetus, which has been 

 disturbed and roused to action. Another mode is to press the closed 

 fist strongly inward in the same situation and hold it so, forming a 

 deep indentation in the abdominal wall. Presently the knuckles are 

 felt to be struck by a solid body, which is no other than the fetus that 

 had been displaced to the left by the push of the hand, and now floats 

 back in its liquid covering (amniotic fluid; see PI. XII) downward 

 and to the right. 



Of all the modes of examination by touch, that done tlirough the 

 rectum gives the earliest satisfactory indications. The hand and 

 arm, well oiled, are introduced, and the excrement having been 

 removed if necessary, the palm of the hand is turned downward and 

 the floor of the pelvis carefully examined. There will be felt in the 

 median line the pear-shaped outline of the bladder, more or less full, 

 rounded or tense, according to the quantity of urine it contains. 

 Between this and the hand will be felt a soft, somewhat rounded 

 tubular body, which divides in front into two smaller tubes or 

 branches, extending to the right and left into the abdomen. This 

 is the womb, which in its virgin, or unimpregnated, condition is of 

 nearly unifoim size from before backward, the main part or body 

 being from 1^ to 2 inches across, and the two anterior branches or 

 horns being individually little over an inch wide. Immediately after 

 conception the body and one of the horns begin to enlarge, the vacant 

 horn remaining disproportionately small, and the enlargement will 

 be most marked at one point, where a solid rounded mass indicates 

 the presence of the growing embryo. In case of twins, both horns 

 are enlarged. At a more advanced stage, when the embryo begins 

 to assume the form of the future animal, the rounded form gives 

 place to a more or less irregular nodular mass, while later still the 

 head, limbs, and body of the fetus may be distinctly made out. The 

 chief source of fallacy is found in the very pendent abdomen of cer- 

 tain cows, into which in advanced gestation the fetus has dropped 

 so low that it can not be felt by the hand in the rectum. The absence 

 of the distinct outline of the vacant womb, however, and the clear 

 indications obtained on external examination through the right flank 

 will serve to prevent any mistake. The fetus may still be felt 

 through the rectum if the abdomen is raised by a sheet passed from 

 side to side beneath it. 



