160 DISEASES OP CATTLE. 



womb have made their way through the Fallopian tubes to the ovary. 

 If they met and impregnated an ovum in the tube, and if the conse- 

 quent growth of that ovum prevented its descent and caused its impris- 

 onment within the tube, it developed there, getting attached to and 

 drawing nourishment from the mucous walls. Such product has its 

 development arrested by compression by the undilatable tube, or, burst- 

 ing through the walls of the tube, it escapes into the abdomen and 

 perishes. If, on the contrary, the spermatozoa only meet and impreg- 

 nate the ovum on or in the ovary, the development may take place in 

 the substance of the ovary from which the fetus draws its nourish- 

 ment, or the impregnated ovum escaping between the ovary and the 

 open end of the tube falls into the abdominal cavity and becomes 

 adherent to and draws nourishment from some of the abdominal 

 organs (womb, bowel, liver, stomach, etc.). 



Symptoms. — The symptoms are those of pregnancy, which may be 

 suddenly complicated by inflammation (peritonitis), owing to rupture 

 of the sac containing the fetus; or at full term signs of calving 

 appear, but no progress is made; an examination with the oiled hand 

 in the vagina or rectum finds the womb empty and its mouth closed. 

 Further examination will disclose the fetal sac attached in some part 

 of the abdominal cavity, and containing the more or less perfectly 

 developed body of a calf. In the most hopeful cases the fetus per- 

 ishes at an early stage of gestation, becomes inclosed in a fibrous sac, 

 and is slowly absorbed, its soft parts becoming liquefied and removed 

 and the bones remaining encysted. In some cases the bones have 

 finally sloughed into the rectum or through an artificial opening in 

 the side of the belly. 



Treatment. — Little can be done in such cases except to quiet pain 

 and excitement by anodynes (opium, chloral, etc.) and leave the rest 

 to nature. A fistula discharging bones may be dilated and the bones 

 extracted, the sac being then washed out with a solution of 10 grains 

 bichloride of mercury in a quart of water. In certain cases with a 

 live calf a skillful operator might be justified in cutting into the abdo- 

 men and extracting the calf with its membranes, using the lotion just 

 named as an antiseptic. 



PROLONGED RETENTION OF THE FETUS. 



Even when the fetus has developed within the womb it may fail to 

 be delivered at the proper time; labor pains have quickly subsided 

 and the cow resumed her usual health. In such cases the calf dies, 

 and its soft parts are gradually liquefied and absorbed, while its bones 

 remain for years in the womb inclosed in the remains of the fetal 

 membranes. These may be expelled at any time through the natural 

 channels, or they may remain indefinitely in the womb, not interfer- 

 ing with the general health, but preventing conception. 



If the true condition of things is recognized at the time of the sub- 



