i:t:TH.\TlUX ny THE FdlTAI. KXrh'/.n/'h'S. 565 



tinue to ruminate and give milk as if there were nothiu},' amiss ; though 

 in some instances the animal may stamp with its hind-feet, raise the 

 tail, and act as if about to defecate or micturate, while a small quantity 

 of fcetid sanious fluid escapes from the vulva. 



Si/7n2)toin^ and Terminations. 



The symptoms are generally so marked that the state of affairs is 

 readily discovered. Nearly always there is a more or less considerable 

 mass of the fdtal envelopes — sometimes only the umbilical cord — • 

 hanging from the vulvar orifice, the labia of which are often swollen 

 and injected. Occasionally the mass is so large as to reach below the 

 hocks, with little bags of liquor amnii at the lower end ; it has, if 

 recently expelled, a fresh tint, not unlike that of the intestines ; but if 

 exposed for some time, and especially in summer, it is greyish-coloured, 

 somewhat adhesive, and generally soiled by fyeces or litter. 



In other cases nothing is noticeable, except when the animal is lying 

 on its abdomen ; then the pressure on the uterus pushes the cervix into 

 the vagina, and if any portion of the membranes is through the os, of 

 course it is visible. In others, again, nothing whatever is to be seen 

 whether the creature is lying or standing, the whole nuxss being retained 

 in the uterus. After the third day of delivery, the os is usually closed ; 

 and unless a portion of the membranes chanced to be in the vagina 

 before this period, the entire placenta is imprisoned in the uterus, and 

 a manual exploration will not always discover it. Sometimes only a 

 fragment of the membranes is so retained. 



It has been mentioned that in many cases the animal does not evince 

 any uneasiness at first ; sometimes when the portion of placenta hang 

 ing outside the vulva is large and heavy and the creature is standing, 

 the meatus mnnarius is pressed upon, and micturition is rendered diffi- 

 cult. There may also be symptoms of abdominal pain — whisking the 

 tail, stamping with the feet, and nuiking efforts as if to defecate or 

 micturate, with slight and brief uterine contractions, which may eventu- 

 ally lead to the expulsion of the placenta. 



It often happens that when the os is not completely closed, owing to 

 a portion of the membranes lying in it, spontaneous expulsion takes 

 place after a variable period. 



Deneubourg asserts that it occurs at fixed intervals, which are almost 

 regular " tertiary periods"; tiiat is, if expulsion does not ensue in the 

 first twenty-four hours, it should take j)lace on the third day ; and if 

 not then, it will be either on the sixth, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, or other 

 tertiary interval — but most frequently on the ninth day. How far this 

 assertion may be correct, experience can alone decide ; what is more to 

 the point is the fact, that when once this spontaneous expulsion has 

 been elTected tliere is little to be apprehended. 



It is not so if retention be accompanied by decomposition of the mem- 

 branes. This occurs when the air has access to them ; and all the 

 more rapidly does putrefaction progress if the temperature is high, and 

 they are impregnated with discharges. 



The odour is most repulsive, and a sanious brown-tinted discharge, 

 composed of debris of the membranes and secretions from the irritated 

 mucous lining of the genital canal, fiow from the vulva — soiling it, the 

 tail, thighs, and hocks, and often excoriating them. This discharge is 

 most abundant when the animal extends itself to micturate, and it is 



