382 DOGS : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



Tlie tube assists us in guiding the loop, which, being 

 once fixed, can be made secure, so that traction does not 

 afterwards further tighten it. The danger, however, is 

 not entirely removed; for, if undue force be used, the 

 wire may do injury as well as the worsted ; and for that 

 reason I seldom ' resort to it, unless assured the pup is 

 dead, when the pains are generally slight, and additional 

 force is often necessitated. 



When the pup dies before birth, the membranes in 

 which it is enveloped generally rupture ; and by intro- 

 ducing the finger, the foetus is to be felt without these 

 interposing. The mere rupture of the membranes, and 

 the emission of the meconium — a dark, greenish, semi- 

 fluid substance — will not alone convince us of the fact ; 

 but, if the labor has been p'^olonged, if the throes are 

 almost lost, and if no motion can be detected in the pup, 

 we may conclude the life has departed. 



Dead pups are more difficult to deliver, and stimulants 

 are generally needed to promote their expulsion ; hut 

 manual help is to be given with caution. Youatt speaks 

 of working hard, till his nail was soft and his finger sore, 

 for two hours at a time ; and that author tells us the 

 passage was, by his industry and frequent examinations, 

 so much swollen, that only with considerable difficulty 

 could the finger be passed. 



The humanity which shines in every wish that writer 

 ever penned, and the purpose of all his teaching, assures 

 us he thought such a proceeding was not only imperative 

 but praiseworthy. He was, however, a good man actu- 



