ACCIDENTS OF PREONANCY. 199 



century by BoutroUe,* Gervy,- and Iluzard, senior and junior; the latter 

 exhibited to the Society of the Facuhy of Medicine of Paris, in 1815, 

 the uterus of a Sheep containing a fcetus which had been there for 

 three years. Since that period the Hterature of the subject has become 

 very extensive, more than forty instances being recorded in Enghsh 

 veterinary journals alone. All the domesticated animals may suffer 

 from abnormal retention of the foetus, but the Cow appears to be far 

 more exposed to it than any other — the frequency in tins animal 

 being as twelve to one in the Mare, and ten to one in the Sheep. Of 

 the forty-eight instances recorded by Saint-Cyr, 35 occurred in the 

 Cow, 7 in the Ewe, 5 in the Mare, and only 1 in the Bitch. 



SY.MrTOMS AND TERMINATIONS. — The symptoms at first are, of course, 

 those of pregnancy, until the period of normal parturition, or even 

 during pregnancy when abortion is about to take place. At this period 

 there are nearly all the signs of parturition : enlarged mamma3, swollen 

 vulva, pendulous abdomen, restlessness and anxiety. Then straining 

 begins, but the os uteri remains closed and no fcetus appears. This 

 condition may persist for only a brief period, and be so little marked as 

 to pass uuobsen'ed in some cases ; in others it may continue for two, 

 three, or four days, the expulsive efforts gradually diminishing in force 

 and frequency until they altogether disappear. The animal then re- 

 gains its ordinary state, and, if a Cow, the secretion of milk goes on as 

 if there were nothing the matter. Health may never be impaired from 

 this cause, and the condition of the animal may not be suspected until, 

 if a Cow or a Sheep, it has been fattened and slaughtered by the butcher 

 for food, when the fcxtus is discovered. It has been observed that oestrum 

 does not appear in such animals, as a rule. The exceptions are rare, 

 though Rossignol mentions a Cow which retained its fcutus for twenty- 

 seven months, yet gave an abundance of milk, often exhibited oestrum, 

 went to the Bull, and was at last killed because it became too fat ! 

 More cases of a similar kind are recorded. 



In other instances, after the ordinary period of gestation has been ex- 

 ceeded by several months, signs of parturition are again manifested, 

 and delivery may then be safely accomplished, either witliout aid, which 

 is rare, or by careful manipulation ; the young animal may even be born 

 alive if too long a period has not intervened since the normal time of 

 delivery.-' Parturition in these cases is generally diflicult ; and the 



' Le Par/ait [iouvkr, 1776. He writes : " There are Cow« which are not ' open,' that 

 is to say, which have not sufficient pasHage for the Calf, which nm.iins in the Cow an<l 

 becomes dried up like a ball. The Cow does not die for all thin, if it is well cared for ; 

 but many perish when, instead of drying up, the fcetus becomes a mass of corruption. The 

 Cow which carries it--* dried up Calf in the uterui does not seek the Bull. ... It is neces 

 sary to take care of these Cows for ten months or a year, and to feed them well, especially 

 when the Calf dries, for they eat little and become extremely emaciated for fifteen days. 

 In about ten months or earlier, if ther« is any herbajje, these Cows are put out t<^i pasture, 

 and they fatten like others ; the butchers find the calf dried up in the Calf-bag." 



'^ Iiuilruclions I'cUriuairf, vol. iv., p. '25tJ. 



' In the Xeicca.'^tle Jonnial for January 18, 1840, there is the description of a Calf 

 which wa« bom on the 306th day (fifty two weeks and one day). It waa alive when 

 dropped, but died soon after. It was of great size, though born without assistance ; it 

 was a male. 



Strange to relate, in the Veterinarian for IS.'iO (p. 14S), a Mr. Tatam, of Homcastle, 

 records a caae of abnormal pregnancy in a Cow in his locality, in which not only was the 

 peri<xl the same (fifty two weeks and a day), but the Calf was a male, as extraordinary in 

 size, and excited a similar degree of wonder, as the above. Mr. Tatam saw the Calf ; 

 had he seen the other one ? 



