Functions of the Generative Organs. 149 
forceps with advantage. Various patterns are in use, some 
of them fenestrated, others not ; some resemble polypus- 
forceps, while others again are grooved, serrated, or toothed 
at the ends of the blades. An essential which should not. 
be lost sight of in the forceps for such small animals as the 
bitch or cat, is that the blades should be sufficiently long to 
seize not only the head, but much, if not all of the body of 
the foetus. . If they are too short in the blades they cannot 
be made to grasp sufficient of the foetus to remove it; while 
the joint being close to the vulva, or even within the vagina, 
is likely to pinch the mucous membrane and cause con- 
siderable pain. 
“ Hill, of Wolverhampton, who has had extensive expe- 
rience in this direction, uses a small and slightly modified 
form of the human forceps for bitches ; there is a spring 
between the branches of the handle. (Fig. 12).* 
“Weber has proposed a forceps for these small animals, 
and it has been preferred by some authorities to the ordinary 
model. It is a modification of one for a long time employed 
by Leblanc, which again was fashioned after an instrument 
designed by Hunter. This is composed of an iron: stalk, 
about ten inches in length, with a wooden handle at one 
end and two blades or bows at the other. On this stalk 
glides a long enveloping metal tube, which, near the handle, 
has a wide ferrule, or shield, that allows it to be pushed 
along by the thumb of the hand holding the instrument, and 
thus to bring the blades together. A nut, or female screw, 
running on a screwed portion of the stalk, near the handle, 
* These forceps were made according to my directions for private 
use, as will be perceived from Fig. 12. There is a spring between the 
handles, consequently the instrument must be closed before it can be 
inserted. The handles are then relaxed in proportion to the require- 
meets of the case, z.¢., to the vaginal distension necessary to pass the 
forceps on either side behind the head of the pup. In small bitches, 
where the passage is much contracted, and it is difficult to manipulate 
with the fingers, the instrument is useful in exerting a gradual strain 
on the wall of the vagina from the spring pressure between the handies. 
