i6o The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



" Placing her under chloroform, on a table, I made a 

 section in the left iliac region, through the abdominal 

 muscles and peritoneum ; and then exposing the uterus, I 

 incised it between four and five inches, and removed eight 

 whelps — six alive and two dead.* I closed the uterine 

 opening with continuous silk suture, the peritoneum and 

 abdominal muscles with continuous gut suture, and the skin 

 with interrupted linen-thread suture. 



" The parts were then sponged with warm water ; a little 

 brandy and milk, with ten drops of laudanum, administered, 

 and the patient placed on a rug over a thick bed of straw. 

 Strict quietude was ordered, and a little brandy and milk 

 only to be given in two hours. 



" At six o'clock on the same evening I visited my patient, 

 and, with much regret, learned she had just expired. I 

 was informed she had not shown any symptoms of pain or 

 uneasiness since the operation ; that she had risen to her 

 feet a few moments before she died, walked to her master 

 and wagged her tail. 



" In this case death resulted from sheer exhaustion. No 

 support of any description had been given to the poor creature 

 but what she chose herself to take, until I first arrived. 

 She had been in severe, labour for many hours ; and only 

 the following morning was any assistance rendered, and 

 that, until my services were requested, had been rough, un- 

 practical, and injurious. 



" I feel convinced that had the operation been performed 

 seven or eight hours earlier, the mother's life would have 

 been saved ; or that, in the first instance, proper assistance 

 would have procured a natural birth of the abnormally pre- 

 sented one. The whelps that were alive are being reared 

 by hand, and, so far, are doing well." 



* The uterus, internally, was intensely inflamed— the os being per- 

 fectly black, and the whole membrane more or less livid. One por- 

 tion of intestine, just observable, was also much inflamed. My prognosis 

 from these appearances and other conditions of the bitch, was un- 

 favourable 



