210 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



channels, and in such cases the saving of the calf is all that can be 

 expected, the exhausted cow, already the subject of active inflamma- 

 tion and too often also of putrid poisoning, is virtually beyond hope. 

 The hope of saving the dam is greatest if she is in good health and 

 not fatigued, in cases, for example, in which the operation is resorted 

 to on account of broken hip bones or abnormally narrow passages. 



The stock owner will not attempt such a serious operation as this. 

 Yet, where the mother has just died or is to be immediately sacrificed, 

 no one should hesitate to resort to it in order to save the calf. If 

 alive it is important to have the cow perfectly still. Her left fore leg 

 being bent at the knee by one person, another may seize the left horn 

 and nose and turn the head to the right until the nose rests on the 

 spine just above the shoulder. The cow will sink down gently on her 

 left side without shock or struggle. One may now hold the head 

 firmly to the ground, while a second, carrying the end of the tail from 

 behind forward on the inside of the right thigh, pulls upon it so as to 

 keep the right hind limb well raised from the ground. If time presses 

 she may be operated on in this position, or if the cow is to be sacri- 

 ficed 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 20 minutes, and the opera- 

 tion 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 solu- 

 tion, 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 care- 

 fully 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, who^ 

 hands, like those of the operator, have been dipped in the sublimate 

 solution^ may press his hands on the wound behind the knife to pre- 

 vent 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, carefully avoid the cotyledons, 



