260 NORMAL PARTURITION. 



Bitch, it has been remarked that when the pains are weak, the first 

 puppy that presents is usually dead. 



The causes of death of the foetus during parturition are not numerous, 

 and may be enumerated as follows: — 1. Knots on the umbilical cord, 

 which, though not unfrequent in the human foetus, appear to be very 

 rare in animals ; 2. Twists of the cord around the body, neck, or limbs 

 of the foetus, and which may be sufficiently tight to interrupt the circu- 

 lation in the umbilical vessels ; 3. Prolonged compression of the umhilical 

 cord, due to the foetus remaining a long time in the passage, whereby 

 the circulation of blood is checked ; 4. Premature rupture of the mem- 

 branes and escape of the whole of the liquor amnii, which, if parturition 

 is not soon completed, exposes the foetus to great danger from imme- 

 diate pressure of the uterus upon it; 5. Disunion, moi-e or less com- 

 plete and extensive, between the uterus and foetal envelopes, by which 

 the vital connection between the mother and foetus is interrupted, and 

 if the latter is not quickly expelled it must die from asphyxia. Owing 

 to the difference in the placentation of the various animals, it happens 

 that this foetal asphyxia is not equally common in all — a fact which 

 experience and clinical observation have abundantly demonstrated. 



Many veterinarians, and among them Saint-Cyr, have been struck by 

 the fact, that no matter how soon they were called in to a case of diffi- 

 cult parturition in the Mare, nor how trifling the difficulty might be 

 and rapid the delivery, the living foal was never produced ; while in 

 cases in Cows, though incomparably more difficult, and requiring 

 manipulation for more than an hour, living Calves were the rule. So 

 common is this experience, that a very distinguished French veterinary 

 surgeon — Donnarieix — has laid it down as a maxim that the Foal does, 

 not live more than three hours, often less, in the uterus after the first 

 expulsive efforts ; while the Calf in the same conditions can live much 

 longer — sometimes for several days — after the commencement of labour. 

 The explanation he gives, and which we think is correct, is based on 

 the manner in which the foetal placenta is inserted into the uterus. In 

 the Cow, the placentulse, multiple and independent of each other, 

 adhere firmly and closely to the uterine cotyledons, so that the placental 

 circulation may persist for a long time, notwithstanding the energy of 

 the uterine contractions ; while in the Mare, the placental apparatus,, 

 being everywhere distributed over the chorion, adheres but feebly to 

 the uterine mucous membrane, and gives way as soon as labour com- 

 mences, so that foetal asphyxia is imminent if birth be not prompt. 

 There are exceptions, of course, to this rule, and another practitioner 

 asserts that he has delivered four living Foals three and a half hours 

 after the parturient straining began ; one of them was even four hours- 

 in the uterus before it was born, and underwent this straining without 

 injury. 



The foetus may also perish when it is in a wrong position, or 

 is of unusual size, and force has to be employed in delivering it, in 

 which case undue compression of the chest may impede the action of 

 the heart. 



It was, and still is, believed by many that the foetus plays an active 

 part in delivery, and particularly in rupturing its membranes ; while 

 others consider that its death increases to a marked degree the diffi- 

 culties of parturition, because it does not then stimulate the contrac- 

 tions of the uterus, and its flaccid tissues do not afford that resistance 

 to the uterine muscles which they do when it is alive. But Saint-Cyr 



