298 



MATERXAL DYSTOKLA. 



Origin and Symptoms in Uniparous Animals. 



The symptoms and other features of this accident rather differ [in 

 uniparous and multiparous animals. In such uniparous creatures as 

 the Mare and Cow, hernia of the uterus is generally not observed until 

 pregnancy is pretty well advanced— towards the eighth or ninth month, 

 or even later in the Mare, and the seventh or eighth month in the Cow. 

 This delay is evidently due to the circumstance that, in the non-preg- 

 nant animal, the uterus is small, and clnpoly fixed by its ligaments to 

 the sub-lumbar region; so that if Lhcro is a lircaeh in the abdominal 

 walls, it is either the intestine or omentum which pa-ses through it. 

 When, however, pregnancy is advanced, the groat size of the organ, 



Fig. 84. 



Uterine Hernia : Mare. 



A, B, Hernial Tumour ; C, Teat carried down bj' the Tumour. 



together with its weight, brings it in contact with the parietes of the 

 peritoneal cavity, and if there happens to be a weak part or a rupture, 

 no matter how slight, the heavy uterus gradually forces itself through, 

 and may in time escape altogether from the abdomen, along with other 

 viscera. 



It would seem that laceration of the abdominal walls may occur in 

 other ways than through external traumatic influences, or any appre- 

 ciable occasional cause ; and it would also appear that, in some animals, 

 there is a kind of predisposing relaxation or softening of the abdominal 

 muscles, which leads to their being unable to support the gradually 

 increasing strain thrown upon them by the heavy uterus, and its often- 

 times very lively and energetic inmate. The muscles are stretched 



