292 Veterinary Medicine. 



ovary anteriorly and adherent to it through one of the broad lig- 

 aments ; it may be sensitive to touch, tense, or even fluctuating. 

 Difiiculty may be encountered when the enlarged ovary is so 

 great as to fill the whole region, or when adherent to or wound 

 round the rectum, thus hindering the advance of the hand or the 

 movement of the gut, or when it has become pediculated and dis- 

 placed to a distant part of the abdomen. Even the obstructed 

 and distended intestine, may prevent a satisfactory diagnosis. 

 Yet in the great majority of cases rectal examination gives con- 

 clusive results. 



Treatment. Medicinal measures are useless : surgical alone 

 are of any avail. Castration is the natural resort, and in all re- 

 cent cases, uncomplicated by adhesions, is to be preferred. In 

 the large females it may often be performed through the vagina, 

 but if the ovary is very large the flank operation becomes imper- 

 ative. Sometimes the evacuation through a cannula of the con- 

 tents of one or more large cysts will so reduce the mass as to 

 allow of the safer vaginal operation. 



A less radical measure is the evacuation of the cyst with can- 

 nula and trochar and the injection of tincture of iodine. With a 

 hand in the rectum the ovary may be held against the abdominal 

 ^vall to facilitate the operation. The results, however, are not 

 satisfactory, for, although re-accumulation of the liquid is delayed, 

 it is not entirely prevented. Moreover, when the cysts are multiple, 

 the punctures also must be numerous, or remain ineffective. 

 Nor is the operation unattended by danger as deaths often occur 

 from resulting inflammation, infection, or iodine poisoning. 



Zannger, in i860, introduced the method of rupturing the 

 cyst without incision, and met with considerable success. With 

 the hand in the rectum the cystic ovary is pressed against the 

 wall of the pelvis or abdomen, until the attenuated wall of the 

 cyst gives way, the fluid is left in the abdominal cavity, to be ab- 

 sorbed and many animals will afterward become pregnant. In a 

 large proportion of cases in which the symptoms are marked, 

 the walls of the cyst are sufficiently attenuated to allow of rup- 

 ture by pressure, and, if the escaping contents are free from in- 

 fecting microbes, no immediate harm comes to the peritoneum. 

 It should be avoided in case of abscess, following perhaps on 

 a shivering fit and constitutional febrile reaction, and when there 



