160 



and this can sometimes be accomplished with the aid of a stout blanket 

 gradually tightened around the belly. This failing, the mare may be 

 placed on her side or back and gravitation brought to the aid of manip- 

 ulation in securing the return. Even after the hernia has been reduced 

 the relaxed state of the womb and abdominal walls may serve to hinder 

 I)arturition, in which case the oiled hand must be introduced through 

 the vagina, the foetus brought into position, and traction coincident 

 with the labor pains employed to secure delivery. 



TWISTING or THE NECK OF THE WOMB. 



This condition is very uncommon in the mare, though occasionally 

 seen in the cow, owing to the greater laxity of the broad ligaments of 

 the womb in that animal. It consists in a revolution of the womb on 

 its own axis, so that its right or left side will be turned upward (quarter 

 revolution), or the lower surface may be turned upward and the upper 

 surface downward (half revolution). The effect is to throw the narrow 

 neck of the womb into a series of spiral folds, turning in the direction 

 in which the womb has revolved, closing the neck and rendering dis- 

 tention and dilatation impossible. 



The period and pains of parturition arrive, but in spite of continued 

 efforts no progress is made, neither water-bags nor liquids appearing. 

 The oiled hand introduced into the closed neck of the womb will readily 

 detect the spiral direction of the folds on its inner surface. 



The method of relief which I have successfully adopted in the cow may 

 be equally happy in the mare. The dam is placed (with her head up- 

 hill) on her right side if the upper folds of the spiral turn toward the 

 right, and on her left side if they turn toward the left ; and the oiled 

 hand is introduced through the neck of the womb and a limb or other 

 part of the body of the foetus is seized and pressed against the wall of 

 the womb, while two or three assistants turn the animal over her back 

 toward the other side. The object is to keep the womb stationary while 

 the animal is rolling. If success attends the effort, the constriction 

 around the arm is suddenly relaxed, the spiral folds are effaced, and 

 the water-bags and foetus press forward into the passage. If the first 

 attempt does not succeed it may be repeated again and again until suc- 

 cess crowns the effort. Among my occasional causes of failure have 

 been the prior death and decomposition of the foetus, with the extrica- 

 tion of gas and overdistention of the womb, and the supervention of 

 inflammation and inflammatory exudation around the neck of the womb, 

 which hinders untwisting. The first of these conditions occurs early in 

 the horse from the detachment of the foetal membranes from the wall 

 of the womb, and as the mare is more subject to fatal peritonitis than 

 the cow, it may be concluded that both these sources of failure are 

 more probable in the equine subject. 



When the case is intractable, though the hand may be easily in- 

 troduced, the instrument shown in Plate VIII, Fig. 7, may be used. 



