MO null) ALTHlLiriOys IX THE nHXKIlATll'E VHnAXS. 303 



The OS is not always easily fouiul, and it is sometimes so contracted 

 that one finger cannot be introduced into it ; at other times it is not so 

 constricted, and the ftotus may be felt through it. But in every case it 

 is irregular and deformed, deviated from its usual direction, and its 

 walls greatly thickened, perliaps corrugated. Its degree of hardness 

 and thickness will indicate whether, and to what extent, it can he 

 dilated ; and this condition may not only involve the whole of the 

 cervix, hut also the walls of the uterus itself, as well as those of the 

 vagina. 



When the cervix is ulcerated, the hand will be found covered with 

 blood after the examination. 



Diagnosis. 



The diagnosis of this condition must be left, to a large extent, to the 

 tactile impressions derived from a vaginal exploration. In some cases 

 an ocular inspection of the cervix may be possible, and the previous 

 history of the case may also be useful in this direction. 



Proijnosis. 



The influence of the induration on the act of parturition will depend 

 upon the degree and extent of the alteration in the cervix. If this is 

 not very serious, and does not implicate the organ very much, and par- 

 ticularly if the induration is localized in some unimportant part, par- 

 turition, though protracted, may nevertheless be accomplished without 

 assistance. Often, however, the results are troublesome ; one of these 

 is laceration of the cervix, from its unequal dilatation. 



Though there is a great difference, pathologically speaking, between 

 the various alterations — for example, between simple fibrous trans- 

 formation and cancerous degeneration — yet it is admitted that the most 

 benignant alteration is infinitely more serious, from an obstetrical point 

 of view, than simple rigidity of the cervix, either in its immediate or 

 remote results. This Saint-Cyr has proved to be the case in nineteen 

 recorded observations. Of these, seven were more or less unfortunate in 

 their results ; in three instances the mother and fti^tus succumbed ; in 

 other three the mother died, but the progeny was saved ; and in the 

 seventli, the Calf died, but the Cow lived. This is a very high rate of 

 mortality, and yet Saint-Cyr is not quite certain that in these nineteen 

 observations there were not some which were rather cases of simple 

 rigidity than induration of the cervix. For as Rainard remarks— and 

 the remark would also apply to the observations recorded in English 

 veterinary literature — it is not always easy, for lack of sufticient details, 

 to discern clearly to which category belongs such or such an obsei"va- 

 tion given by writers under the title of " indurated cen'ix," " schirrous 

 cen-ix," " stricture of the os uteri," etc. 



In arriving at a prognosis in a case of this description, the immediate 

 results are not alone to be taken into consideration ; as pregnancy and 

 the manipulatory operations necessary to effect delivery— which is 

 always tedious and difficult — give to morbid alterations of these parts — 

 even when quite benignant in their nature — an exceptional gravity ; so 

 that many animals, even after a comparatively easy delivery, succumb 

 soon afterwards to the diseased condition. The uterus may be ruptured 

 through the efforts at delivery. 



