204 PATHOLOGY OF PREGNANCY. 



found that care and patience, and, above all things, an absence of undue 

 haste, are commendable, and particularly with regard to the removal of 

 the membranes, especially in primiparae. The danger of septic infection 

 may be largely averted by intravaginal emollient douches, and serious 

 consequences may often be avoided by abstaining from premature and 

 violent interference. 



When portions of the foetus are expelled through fistulous openings, 

 even then surgical interference might be successfully invoked. 



Abortion. 



"When pregnancy is interrupted by the expulsion of the ovum, or of 

 the foetus at a stage when this has not attained sufficient development 

 to live external to its parent, abortion {loartus immaturus) is said to occur. 

 But when the foetus is expelled before the ordinary period of parturition, 

 yet with all its organs sufficiently perfected to enable it to exist for at 

 least some time in the external world, this is designated incmaturc birth 

 {partus ])rcEmaturus). In the first instance, the young creature is either 

 dead when expelled* from the uterus, or dies immediately afterwards ; 

 and in the second, it may be weakly and immature, and succumb after 

 a variable period ; or it may continue to live and thrive. In practice, 

 there is no accurately defined limit between abortion and premature 

 birth, and especially when the latter has been brought about by some 

 of the causes which produce the former. 



Abortion may be said to take place in Solipeds, when the foetus is 

 expelled forty days before the normal period ; in the Bovine species, 

 thirty-five days ; in the Sheep and Goat, twenty days ; in the Pig, 

 fifteen days ; and with the Bitch and Cat, seven days. Saint-Cyr says 

 that it may be acknowledged that abortion has taken place, when the 

 foetus is expelled in the Mare before the 300th day of gestation, in the 

 Cow before the 200th, in the Ewe before the 140th, and in the Sow 

 before the 100th day. 



There is not the same tendency or readiness in all the domesticated 

 animals to abort. The Bitch and Cat rarely do so, even after serious 

 injuries ; and the Sow retains its foetuses almost as tenaciously ; but 

 the Sheep and Goat are rather liable to this accident. The Cow and 

 Mare, but more especially the former, most frequently lose their foetus. 

 In what proportion abortions occur is not ascertainable from any docu- 

 mentary evidence. For the Cow, Baumeister and Eueff state that in 

 France, in a dairy containing Durham Cows, and numbering 100 preg- 

 nancies, there were 17 abortions ; and at Hohenheim, from a register 

 kept for thirty years, it appears that one-fifth of the Cows aborted. 

 Among 5,864 Sheep of various breeds at the same establishment, there 

 were only 26 abortions, or 0-433 per cent. 



Abortion may occur at any period of gestation within the limits above 

 named, though it is much more frequent during the first than the 

 second half of pregnancy, and especially with the Mare. When this 

 accident occurs at a very early stage, it may produce no appreciable 

 disturbance of health in the female, and the developing ovum escapes 

 intact, and often unperceived. The accident is more serious when it 

 happens at a late period; as it then not only causes the loss of the young 

 animal, but may compromise the existence or value of the mother. 



Abortion may be either sporadic, enzootic, or epizootic. When cases 

 occur here and there on farms or breeding establishments over a 

 wide extent of country, without any relationship as to causation, they 



