DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 159 



DROPSY OP THE MEMBRANES OP THE PETUS (DROPSY OP THE 



WOMB). 



The unimpregnated womb may be filled with a dropsical fluid, but 

 the pregnant womb is more liable to become overdistended by an excess 

 of fluid in the inner water bag in which the fetus floats. (PL XII.) 

 From an unhealthy state of this membrane or of the blood of the fetus 

 (watery blood) this liquid may go on accumulating until the cow seems 

 almost as broad as she is long. If the trouble has not originated in the 

 ill health of the cow, the result is still to draw on her system, overtax her 

 strength, and derange her digestion, so that the result may prove fatal 

 to both mother and offspring. On the other hand, I have known 

 extreme cases come to the natural term without help and produce a 

 living calf, after which the dam did well. The natural resort is to 

 draw off a portion of the fluid through a hollow needle passed through 

 the neck of the womb or through its tense wall adjacent. This may 

 be repeated several times, as demanded, to relieve the cow from the 

 injurious distention. 



PARALYSIS OP THE HIND PARTS. 



In ill-fed, weak, unthrifty cows palsy of the hind limbs and tail may 

 appear in the last weeks of pregnancy. The anus and rectum may 

 participate in the palsy so far as to prevent defecation, and the rectum 

 is more or less completely impacted. Exposure to wet and cold are 

 often accessory causes, though the low condition, general weakness, 

 and the pressure on the nerves going to the hind limbs are not to be 

 forgotten. Something may be done for these cases by a warm, dry bed, 

 an abundant diet fed warm, f ri ctions with straw wisps or with a liniment 

 of equal parts of oil of turpentine and sweet oil on the loins, croup, and 

 limbs, by the daily use of ginger and gentian, by the cautious adminis- 

 tration of strychnia (2 grains twice daily), and by sending a current of 

 electricity daily from the loins through the various groups of muscles 

 in the hind limbs. The case becomes increasingly hopeful after calv- 

 ing, though some days may still elapse before the animal can support 

 herself upon her limbs. 



EXTRA-UTERINE GESTATION (FETUS DEVELOPING OUTSIDE THE WOMB). 



These curious cases are rare and are usually divided into three types : 

 (1) That in which the fetus is formed in or on the ovary (ovarian gesta- 

 tion) ; (2) that in which it is lodged in the Fallopian tube, or canal 

 between the ovary and womb (tubal gestation) ; and (3) that in which 

 it is lodged in the abdominal cavity and attached to one or more of its 

 contents from which it draws its nourishment (abdominal gestation). 

 Undoubted cases of the first and last varieties are recorded as occurring 

 in the cow. The explanation of such cases is to be found in the fact 

 that the actively moving sperm cells (spermatozoa) thrown into the 



