TOIiSION OF THE UTERUS. 30» 



manipulation will in all probability remove it, and thus complete 

 delivery. 



Several modes of procedure have been recommended for adoption in 

 carrying out these indications. Indeed, Saint-Cyr states that when the 

 deviation is inconsiderable, and the band mentioned as obstructing the 

 OS is not present, reduction is often spontaneously effected by luere 

 decubitus. This, in pushing upwards the fundus of the uterus, brings 

 down the cervix to its normal position by an easily understood tilting 

 movement. Scliaack has noticed tliis to happen in two instances. 



In such cases, says Kainard, if the animal persists in standing, it 

 may sutlice to raise the belly by means of a folded sheet or blanket, 

 or even a plank held by an assistant on each side of the Cow ; or the 

 creature may be gently thrown down on a thick bed of straw. 



In diilicult cases, however, these measures will not be sutlicient, and 

 Garreau recommends the following procedure to be adopted. Intro- 

 duce the right hand into the rectum and the left into the vagina ; with 

 the first press on the head of the fcctus, and push back its body (the 

 vaginal tumour), with the second, tilting, as it were, the young creature 

 into its natural position. This will bring the uterus into its normal 

 situation, and consequently place the os opposite the vagina. 



Saint-Cyr, nevertheless, gives the preference to the method re- 

 commended and practised by Schaack in these troublesome cases, 

 inasmuch as it is more simple, and experience has demonstrated its 

 efficacy. This method consists merely in throwing down the Cow 

 most carefully, placing the animal on its back, and keeping it in that 

 position by bundles of straw. Tlie weight of the fa-tus carries the 

 uterus down towards the spine (inferior) ; the fundus of the organ is 

 depressed, and the cervix raised towards the pubis (now superior) ; the 

 obliquity of the uterus is thus got rid of. 



Schaack has on two occasions resorted to this mode of reduction, 

 and in each case the abnormal valve disappeared, and parturition was 

 rendered easy. 



Professor Peuch, of the Lyons Veterinary School, states that in a 

 case of this description he employed Schaak's method ; when the Cow 

 was placed on its back the obliquity disappeared spontaneously, and 

 with the greatest facility. 



TOHSION OF THE UtERUS : CONTOKSIO UtERI. 



Torsion, or "twisting" of the gravid uterus on itself — and which 

 often involves not only the cervix of the organ, but also the vagina — 

 is an accident unknown in the pregnant human female, but for 

 anatomical reasons may occur in animals, and particularly in the Cow, 

 in which it has been most fre<juently observed. The accident is rare 

 in the Mare ; it has bet'ii observed in the Slieep and (loat, as well as 

 in the Cat ; but though in the Sow and Hitch the uterine cornua may 

 become displaced and twisted on each other, and even become hernied 

 by the broad ligaments, yet torsion of the uterus has not been noted 

 in them, so far as can be ascertained. 



The accident will be first studied in the Cow, and afterwards in the 

 Mare and other animals. 



History. 

 Though torsion of the uterus is now recognised as a serious, but not 

 insurmountable obstacle to parturition, yet its existence may be said 



