556 OBSTETIUCAL OPERATIOXS. 



could not be delivered, and was poisoned by cyanide of potassium. 

 Eight minutes after death the fcetuses were observed to move in the 

 abdomen, and this and the uterus being opened, they were extracted 

 alive. 



After fifteen minutes, Franck has found in slaughtered Sheep that 

 the foetus was usually asphyxiated ; and he concludes that during the 

 first eight minutes after the death of the parent, the foetus can be ex- 

 tracted alive ; even towards fifteen minutes there is a chance o-f preserv- 

 ing it, but by that time it is usually dead. When extracted late, and 

 in the first stage of asphyxia, though it may rally for a short time, yet 

 it usually succumbs to inflammation of the lungs — through the amniotic 

 fluid having penetrated into the air-passages during the convulsive 

 gasps the young creature makes. 



There can be no doubt that much of the great mortality which follows 

 the operation is due to the circumstances under which it is undertaken. 

 It is, as a rule, never resorted to until every other means of delivering 

 the animal has failed, and the creature, worn out by suffering, is already 

 almost dead. In addition to this, the foetus itself — subjected to long- 

 continued and severe manipulation — is either dying or dead ; indeed, it 

 may have perished days before, and, becoming putrid, has already in- 

 fected the parent. 



Death is usually due, when not immediate, to putrid infection — to 

 peritonitis or metro-peritonitis. This is more particularly the case with 

 the Bitch, in which, when the operation is performed early and the 

 young are extracted alive, recovery generally takes place ; though 

 Franck remarks that wherever the green colouring matter of the placenta 

 imparts a similar tint to the textures it comes in contact with, very 

 often septic inflammation begins there. The same authority points out 

 that there is no great reason otherwise why death should be a frequent 

 result of the operation, w4ien we consider the hundreds of similar 

 operations performed in the study of embryology, by Bischofi' and others, 

 on Bitches, Guinea-pigs, and Rabbits, the majority of which did not 

 have a fatal termination. He also alludes to the success of Nature's 

 Caesarian section, when we have mummification and maceration of the 

 foetus, consequent on occlusion of the os uteri, and the remains of the 

 creature find their way out by another channel without much disturb- 

 ance to the mother. 



Certainly, the brilliant results obtained from antiseptic surgery in 

 other directions give reason to expect more successes from this operation 

 — at least in the case of the smaller animals. 



The most dangerous cases for operation are those in which the foetus 

 is dead, and more or less decomposed. 



Indications. 



The operation should only be resorted to in those cases in which 

 delivery by the natural passages — the foetus being alive — is altogether 

 impossible, or so difficult and dangerous that the mother incurs nearly 

 as much risk as from gastro-hysterotomy itself, while the young creature 

 must be sacrificed ; or when the owner prefers having the latter alive, 

 instead of incurring the risk of losing both — the progeny being the most 

 valuable. The operation is therefore likely to be demanded in those 

 deformities of the pelvis produced by fractures, exostoses, etc., which 

 considerably diminish its canal, intra-pelvic tumours, hernia of the 

 uterus, extra-uterine foetation, certain cases of uterine torsion irredu- 



