RECTIFICATION OF PRESEXTATIONS A XI) POSIT 10 XS. 491 



intervals between the "pains"; thouf^li during these the expulsive 

 eflbrts should be resisted, so that what lias been accomplished may not 

 be lost. The propulsion should be done by jerks, which are far more 

 effective than a continuous push, and they are not productive of any 

 inconvenience. 



It is nearly always necessary to secure some part of the foetus which 

 is to be repelled — head or limbs — by cords, so that it may be readily 

 seized again and brought into the pelvic cavity. This will be alluded 

 to presently. 



K0T.4.TION. 



" Rotation " of the fcetus consists in turning it more or less round its 

 longitudinal axis, with the view of changing the relation between the 

 presenting parts and the maternal pelvis, or modifying the position 

 without interfering with the presentation. It is required occasionally 

 in all the domestic female animals, and most frequently in the Cow, 

 when the greatest diameter of the foetus is presented to the smaller 

 diameter of the pelvic cavity, as in the majority of the lateral positions. 



After pushing away the body of the foetus — but not its limbs, if they 

 are well placed — from the pelvic inlet, the hand and fore-arm are 

 introduced in supination and well forward between the body of the 

 young creature and the floor of the uterus ; then resting the arm on 

 the pubis, it is employed as a lever in raising and turning the part of 

 the fcetus in hand to the right or left, as may be. If the young ci-eature 

 is alive, this mana'uvre is much more easily executed than when it is 

 dead, as it seconds the effort. Boutrolle advises that the abdomen of 

 the mother be raised by means of a girth or folded blanket, while 

 rotation is being effected ; and other authorities have recommended the 

 employment of a lever between the foetus and the uterus to effect this 

 turning. Kainard recommends, when the limbs are in the pelvis, to 

 tie them together, draw them beyond the \Tilva, put a piece of stick or 

 any other convenient article between them, and to use this as a kind 

 of lever to turn the body of the foetus round to the necessary extent ; 

 or, which is preferable — as in the latter operation the limbs of the 

 young animal may be seriously injured — to give the limbs to an assistant 

 who, acting under instructions from the operator, turns them one over 

 the other in a kind of twisting and swinging manner, in the direction 

 indicated by the operator, whose efforts are in this way greatly assisted. 



The operation of rotation is completed when the greatest diameter 

 of the foetus is coincident with the sacro-pubic diameter of the pelvic 

 inlet — a right or left vertebro-ilial position, for example, being trans- 

 formed into a vertebro-sacral position. 



This modification need not always be so complete, and it fre- 

 ijuently suffices to convert a lateral position into an oblique one, by 

 making the dorso-sternal diameter of the fcetus correspond to the 

 oblique diameter of the inlet — measuring this from the supra-cotyloid 

 crest of one side to the sacro-iliac articulation of the other. The same 

 observation is applicable to posterior presentations. 



Version. 

 " Version," or " turning," in veterinary obstetrics signifies effecting 

 a change of presentation, or, in other words, bringing towards the inlet 

 a part of the fcetus other than that which presented spontaneously, and 

 thus correcting a faulty presentation. 



