INVEKSION OF THE JiLADDER. 600 



sufHciently down, so that wo may be able to inspect the parts. Where 

 they enter, the inner membrane (now the ureter) will have a soft and 

 jelly-like protuberant appearance, in the middle of which will he detected 

 two very small openings of a nipple-like shape. To be certain that we 

 have hit upon them, we may introduce a probe, and pass it down 

 towards the suspended fundus. Havinj]; discovered the orifice of the 

 ureters, and passed a ligature around the neck of the bladder below 

 them, we have nothing more to do than occasionally tighten it, so as to 

 effect complete strangulation and sloughing of the body of the bladder ; 

 though, as soon as we find it dead, we may, to save time, cut it away 

 with a scalpel. We should also, after having applied the ligature, 

 puncture the distended fundus ; since its great weight may cause 

 dragging and inflammation about its cervix, or may force the ligature 

 over the mouth of the uterus, which would occasion the death of the 

 animal. After the separation has taken place, the remaining portion 

 will contract within the vagina, and the cavity will be closed by the 

 vulva. The urine will generally ever after run down the thighs, excori- 

 ating them ; though in other cases the fluid will accumulate within the 

 vulva, and be from time to time ejected in large quantities." 



When excision is not resorted to, spontaneous amputation may take 

 place. 



When the inversion or prolapsus is complicated by rupture of the 

 floor of the vagina, then the accident is of the most serious character, 

 though not invariably fatal in its results. 



CHAPTER VI. 

 Traumatic Lesions of the Genital and. Neighbouring Organs. 



1'jITHER during or after parturition, the genital and neighbouring organs 

 are exposed to injuries of a more or less serious character, according to 

 their situation and extent. These we will now consider in the following 

 order: 1. Laceration and rupture of the uterus; 2. Laceration and 

 rupture of tlic vagina; 3. Thrombus of the vulva and vagina; 4. Relaxa- 

 tion of the j)clvic symphysis ; 5. Jiupturc of the bladder; 6. liupturc of the 

 intestines; 7. Rupture of tlic diaphragm; 8. Rupture of the abdominal 

 viusclcs; 9. Rupture of the sacra-sciatic ligament: 10. Rupture of the 

 lieart. 



I. — L.VCKKATIGN .\ND RlI'TUUE OF THE UtkRUS. 



Laceration and rupture of the soft parturient passages are very far 

 from being unusual during parturition in the domestic animals, par- 

 ticularly in the Mare and Cow, and of these the uterus and vagina are 

 most frequently involved. 



Solutions of continuity of the uterus are often met with by the vete- 

 rinary obstetrist, and they are either incomplete — when the organ is 

 only partially torn or lacerated, or complete — when it is torn through 

 and the uterus opens into the abdominal cavity. These tears may 

 occur either during pregnancy, during parturition, or at a variable 

 period after the fa?tus has been removed from the uterus — when it 

 is generally a complication of inversion of this organ. Ante partum 



39 



