178 DISEA8ES OF CATTLE. 



will flow through the canula and will be hastened by traction on the 

 fore limbs. In the absence of the trocar and canula, two or three of 

 the first ribs may be cut from the breastbone, so that the hand may be 

 introduced through the chest to puncture the diaphragm with an 

 embryotomy knife and allow an escape of the water. In some slighter 

 cases a tardy delivery may take place without puncture, the liquid 

 bulging forward into the chest as the abdomen is compressed in the 

 pelvic passages. With a posterior presentation the abdomen may be 

 punctured more easily either in the flank or with a trocar and canula 

 through the anus. 



GENERAL DROPSY OP THE CALP. 



This occurs from watery blood or disease of some internal organ, 

 like the liver or kidney, and is recognized by the general puffed up- 

 and rounded condition of the body, which pits everywhere on pressure 

 but without crackling. If not too extreme a case, the calf may be 

 extracted after it has been very generally punctured over the body, 

 but usually the only resort is to extract it in pieces. (See "Embry- 

 otomy," p. 198.) 



SWELLING OP THE CALP WITH GAS. 



This is usually the result of the death and decomposition of the 

 fetus when extraction has been delayed for a day or more after the 

 escape of the waters. It is impossible to extract it whole, owing to 

 its large size and the dry state of the skin of the calf, the membranes, 

 and the wall of the womb. These dry surfaces stick with such tenac- 

 ity that no attempt at traction leads to any advance of the calf out of 

 the womb or into the passages. When the fetus is advanced the 

 adherent womb advances with it, and when the strain is relaxed both 

 recede to where they were at first. The condition may be helped 

 somewhat by the free injection of oil into the womb, but it remains 

 impossible to extract the enormously bloated body, and the only resort 

 is to cut it in pieces and extract it by degrees. (See " Embryotomy," 

 p. 198.) 



RIGID CONTRACTIONS OP MUSCLES. 



In the development of the calf, as in after life, the muscles are sub- 

 ject to cramps, and in certain cases given groups of muscles remain 

 unnaturally short, so that even the bones grow in a twisted and dis- 

 torted way. In one case the head and neck are drawn round to one 

 side and can not be straightened out, even the bones of the face and 

 the nose being curved around to that side. In other cases the flexor 

 muscles of the fore legs are so shortened that the .knees are kept con- 

 stantly bent and can not be extended by force. The bent neck may 

 sometimes be sufficiently straightened for extraction by cutting across 

 the muscles on the side to which it is turned, and the bent knees by 

 cutting the cords on the back of the shank bones just below.the knees. 



