ACCIDEXTS OF rREONANCY. 197 



Though the accident is generally of a most serious character, yet, 

 remembering that recovery does sometimes take place, there need not 

 be undue haste in destroying the animal. When the organ contracts 

 the dimensions of the rupture are reduced, and tears in the upper 

 portions are very much less serious than tliose in the lower surface, for 

 obvious reasons. 



Metuoruhagia. 



Accidental haemorrhage from the uterus during pregnancy, appears to 

 be somewhat rare in animals, judging from the paucity of instances 

 recorded. Carsten Harms* has observed this accident in cattle ; it was 

 accompanied by a small discharge of blood from the vagina, particularly 

 during micturition, and resulted in the death of the fcctus. Some 

 observers have not noticed this discharge ; the blood has always re- 

 mained in the uterus, where it has been sometimes found, as a clotted 

 mass, to the amount of more than four gallons. In the majority of 

 cases it would seem to be occasioned by a spontaneous separation — 

 more or less extensive — of the placental capillaries from the uterine 

 surface. Zundel has seen it occur in an animal which showed signs of 

 <:cstrum while pregnant. The following cases may, to some extent, 

 illustrate this accidental uterine haemorrhage. 



1. Egli (Journal dest V^(erinaircs (hi Midi, IS.IO, p. 13."]) wxs called to see a Cow 

 which staggered about in walking, and did not eat. He found it lying, and had great 

 <litticulty in getting it up, when it kept alternately lifting the hind legs. The pulse 

 was slow and very weak, and the heart's beats were loud. There were no other 

 -symptoms. It was bled, but during the operation it staggered and trembled ; the bleed- 

 ing was stopped. It then lay down without appearing to suffer, and was dead in a few 

 minutes. At the autopsy the uterus was observed to be considerably distended and of 

 a violet colour, and an enormous (piantity of blood was effused between the muscular 

 and serous layers, so that the wall of the organ was about six inches thick ; there was no 

 «xtravasation, either in the abdomen or the cavity of the uterus. No cause was a-scribed 

 for the accident. 



2. Zundel (Journal de Mt!il. Vet. de Lyon, 1861) describes the case of a Mare which 

 suddenly presented the following symptoms during pregnancy : Anxious countenance, 

 <lrooping head, rigidity of the loins, staggering gait andjaraencss of the left bind leg, as 

 if from a sprain ; the respiration 3<3 per minute, and pulse 60 and small. Treatment 

 was of no avail ; prostration gradually set in, the animal .-ippeared extremely anxious, 

 soon it could not stand, and when it fell, death ensued almost immediately without much 

 agony. There were never any symptoms of colic or discharge of blood per rulvam. Un 

 examination, a five-months-old ftetus was discovered in the right cornu,and the placenta 

 was detached nearly throughout. The left liom was the seat (»f sub-acute inflammation, 

 and its volume exceeded that of the right ; an enormous blood-clot, me.asuring about four 

 gallons, occupied ttiia horn and the body of the uterus. The bloodvessels were nearly 

 empty. Zundel asks whether the lamene.ss, which had already V)ecn noted as a symptom 

 of metrorrhagia by some (Jerman atithorities, may not be explained by the arrangement 

 of the lumbar jilexus, which send.s nerves to the limbs and the generative organs. 



3. In a pregnant Mare, Schmidt (Aiuialrs lU Mid. Vit. di JirujrtJl) .i, 1862) witnessed 

 the following symptoms : Sudden inappetence ; he.ad low and "beneath the manger"; 

 reeling gait ; extreme feebleness, and hind limbs widely separated ; Ifwking first towards 

 one flank, then the other; pulse 110, regular but sinking; heart's beats <iuite audible, 

 and venous pulsation in neck ; mucous nicmbranes very pale, and the body temperature 

 low. Dark-coloured bloo«l flowed in a pasisive manner frtim the uterus. The Mare died 

 on the same day, and an autopsv revealed all the organs, except the ntenis, almost 

 bloodless ; that viscus was found to be considerably distended with blood — nearly two 

 pailsful — which w.vs partly coagulated. It contained, in afidition, a seven-months foetus 

 surrounded by the liquor amnii, and entirely separated from the uterine walls. 



4. Macgiliivray (Vrferinary Journal, 1881, p. 177) waa asked to attend a Mare 

 more than nine months pregnant, because she was discharging mnch blood. Nothing 

 was done to check the flow, which was arterial blood, and continued rather more than a 



' Lthrburh dtr I'/iifrdrztlichen O'eburtJihiil/e, p. 60. 



