DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 175 



may be seized direct and firmly held. Among my occasional causes 

 of failure with these cases have been, first, the previous death and 

 decomposition of the fetus, leading to such overdistention of the womb 

 that it could not be made to rotate within the abdomen, and, second, 

 the occurrence of inflammation and an exudate on the twisted neck 

 of the womb, which hindered it from untwisting. 



In obstinate cases, in which the hand can be made to pass through 

 the neck of the womb easily, additional help may be had from the use 

 of the instrument shown in PI. XX, fig. 5. Two cords, with running 

 nooses, are successively introduced and made fast on two limbs of the 

 calf; the cords are then passed through the two rings on the end of the 

 instrument, which is passed into the womb and the cords drawn tight 

 and fixed round the handle. Then, using the handle as a lever, it is 

 turned in the direction opposite to the twist. The hand should mean- 

 while be introduced into the womb and the snared limbs seized and 

 pressed against its walls so as to secure the rotation of the uterus along 

 with the body of the fetus. The relaxation of the constriction and 

 the effacement of the spiral folds will show when success has been 

 gained, and the different members at one end of the body should then 

 be brought up so as to secure a natural presentation. 



NARROW PELVIS FROM FRACTURE OR DISEASE. 



In a small cow the pelvis may be too narrow to pass a calf sired by 

 a bull of a large breed, but this is exceptional, as the fetus usually 

 accommodates itself to the size of the dam and makes its extra growth 

 after birth. When the pelvic bones have been fractured repair takes 

 place with the formation of a large permanent callus, which, projecting 

 internally, may be a serious obstacle to calving. Worse still, if the 

 edge of the broken bone projects internally as a sharp spike or ridge, 

 the vaginal walls are cut upon this during the* passage of the calf, 

 with serious or fatal result. In other cases, where the cow has suffered 

 from fragility of bone (fragilitas ossium) the thickening of the bone 

 causes narrowing of the long passage of the pelvis and the crumb- 

 ling fractures poorly repaired, with an excess of brittle new material, 

 may for m an insuperable obstacle to parturition . Cows affected in any 

 of these ways should never again be bred, but if they do get pregnant 

 and reach full time a careful examination will be necessary to deter- 

 mine whether natural parturition can take place, or if the calf must 

 be extracted in pieces. (See "Embryotomy," p. 198.) 



OBSTRUCTION BY MASSES OF FAT. 



This is not unknown in old cows of the beef breeds, the enormous 

 masses of fat upon and within the pelvis being associated with weak- 

 ness or fatty degeneration of the muscles. If the presentation is nat- 

 ural, little more is wanted than a judicious traction upon the fetus to 

 compress and overcome the soft resisting masses. 



