180 PATHOLOGY OF PREGNANCY. 



Rainard was of opinion that they were embryos whose development was 

 checked by disease. 



Demoussy states that the presence of foetal mole in the Mare gives 

 rise to the same phenomena as real pregnancy — enlargement of the 

 abdomen, sinking of the croup and flanks, sluggish gait, and altered 

 respiration ; and that the diagnosis is the presence or absence of move- 

 ment in the foetus. 



Uterine Cysts. 



Uterine cysts are pathological productions, somewhat analogous to 

 the vesicular degeneration of the human placenta, in which the placental 

 villi are distended with fluid, enlarged, elliptical, transparent, and 

 loosely connected, while their vessels become obliterated and disappear. 

 This constitutes what has been designated a " vesicular mole," of which 

 many cases are recorded in veterinary annals. 



Hydatid cysts have been mentioned as occurring in the domesticated 

 animals, and simulating pregnancy ; but the authorities who allude to 

 these instances have not offered any details. They appear to be related 

 to conception and pregnancy, and in some instances they may be a 

 deformed embryo. 



The Veterinarian (vol. xx., p. 187) gives an interesting account of an 

 immense tumour in the uterus which, in the living animal, led to the 

 belief that the Mare was in foal. 



Hydrops Uteri or Hydrometra. 



Hydrops uteri, as the designation implies, is a collection of fluid in 

 the uterus ; though it may not be of a serous character in every case, 

 but may sometimes be purulent. There are many instances of this 

 condition recorded in British and foreign veterinary literature, as occur- 

 ing in the Mare and Cow — the animals which most frequently receive 

 attention, though the Sheep and Bitch sometimes suffer from the 

 disease. This condition appears to be related to gestation ; it is allied 

 to mole pregnancy, and sometimes closely simulates real pregnancy, 

 though it may also be a symptom of metritis. It may also be due to 

 injury to the uterus. 



Eainard says : " "When this collection is forming, the abdomen 

 gradually enlarges as in ordinary gestation : the animal looks healthy, 

 and there is scarcely any difference between this state and that of 

 pregnancy before the second-third, or even the second-half of gestation. 

 It is rare that these collections persist more than five or six months 

 without being evacuated at least once, and it is usual to see this evacua- 

 tion take place every month, or at least every two months. The fluid 

 is greyish coloured, and it is often as much as an ordinary bucketful." 



Saint-Cyr, in alluding to the cases recorded since Rainard wrote 

 these lines, remarks that it is usually after a copulation which is 

 supposed to be successful that these collections form. They are 

 gradually developed, and are accompanied by all the signs of ordi- 

 nary gestation, with the exception, of course, of the movements of 

 the foetus. Then, at a certain time, there appear the precursory indi- 

 cations of parturition or abortion : expulsive efforts— certainly less 

 energetic, painful, or prolonged, as a rule, than those of natural parturi- 

 tion, and rather resembling those of micturition or defecation. The 

 cervix uteri slowly enlarges, though the hand introduced into the 

 vagina discovers the os to be almost impervious, and neither foetus nor 



