432 POSTAL DY8T0KIA. 



with the aid of the repeller ; then the head and fore-limbs being in a 

 good position, birth can readily be effected. In this manner Carsten 

 Harms has extracted a Foal. But in carrying the limbs into the uterus, 

 care must be taken to lift the feet off the floor of the pelvis, one after 

 the other, by flexing the hock and holding the hoof in the hand while it 

 is carried beyond the inlet. "When the front part of the foetus has not 

 advanced far into the pelvis, and the deviation has been ascertained in 

 good time, the anterior presentation has sometimes .been successfully 

 converted into a posterior one, so that birth could take place. 



But such cases are rarely met with in practice ; and, as a rule, the 

 veterinary obstetrist finds that parturition has made much progress, the 

 foetus being fixed in the genital canal and occupying its entire diameter, 

 and its hind-limbs well forward under the body, each labour-pain 

 wedging it more firmly; and the case is perhaps complicated and 

 aggravated by the indiscreet manipulation of amateurs. In such cir- 

 cumstances, it is needless attempting to push the foetus towards the 

 uterus, neither can the hind-limbs be thrust into the uterine cavity ; as 

 no sooner are they carried from under the body for ever so short a dis- 

 tance, than a succeeding pain brings them into their former position. 

 Indeed, it is sometimes most difiicult to reach the hind-limbs to apply 

 cords to them, and so by straightening to bring them parallel to the 

 body. In some cases it has been possible to effect delivery by cord- 

 ing the hind-limbs if they are not advanced very far, and then imlling 

 llicm upwards until the feet reach below the wings of the atlas, but not 

 beyond ; traction now being made simultaneously on all the limbs and 

 the head, the foetus may be extracted. With one hind-limb engaged, 

 the same procedure can be adopted. In a case of this description in 

 the Mare, Obichi succeeded in extracting the Foal by cording the hind- 

 feet (which were under the body), and pulling at them as well as the 

 head and fore-feet. 



Donnarieix recommends pulling the posterior limbs forward beneath 

 the body, the contents of the abdomen and chest having been previously 

 removed to facilitate the operation ; then cording the hind-pasterns, to 

 draw first one, then the other, towards the vulva. He admits, however, 

 that this is difficult, and one of his cases treated in this way occupied 

 four hours ; he was even compelled to excise one of the limbs at the 

 hock, before he could straighten it. The Mare, however, lived. 



Canu, in 1837, gives another method in which embryotomy may be 

 carried out. The illustrative case was that of a Mare, the Foal — which 

 was dead — being born as far as the half of the chest. As it was not 

 possible to push it back, the body of the young creature was divided as 

 near the hind-quarters as possible, by making an incision from the 

 sternum to the spine, behind the last rib on each side ; then the abdo- 

 men was emptied of its contents, and the spine cut through between the 

 last dorsal and first lumbar vertebra, the amputation being facilitated 

 by an assistant holding the lips of the vulva as far apart as possible. 

 The Mare, which was very exhausted, did not offer much opposition 

 when the croup was pushed into the uterus, and the hind-limbs being 

 corded, version was easy, and the operation soon finished. The Mare 

 was at work within twenty days afterwards. 



Canu's method of extraction has often been practised, both in the 

 Mare and Cow, by veterinary sui'geons ; and it has been proved to be 

 both rational and successful — so far as the mother is concerned- Iii 

 ^ Wochtnsch.rift fiir Thierheilkuv.de luid Viehr.ucht. 



