DISEASES OP THE GENERATIVE OEGANS. 207 



sewed up before the womb is returned. After its return, the womb 

 must be injected daily with an antiseptic solution (borax, one-half 

 ounce, or carbolic acid, 3 drams to a quart of tepid water). If in- 

 flammation threatens, the abdomen may be bathed continuously with 

 hot water by means of a heavy woolen rag, and large doses of opium 

 (one-half dram) may be given twice or thrice daily. 



RUPTURES OF THE VAGINA. 



These are attended with dangers similar to those belonging to rup- 

 ture of the womb, and in addition by the risk of protrusion of the 

 bladder, which appears through the lips of the vulva as a red, pyri- 

 form mass. Sometimes such lacerations extend downward into the 

 bladder, and in others upward into the terminal gut (rectum). In 

 stUl other cases the anus is torn so that it forms one common orifice 

 with the vulva. 



Too often such cases prove fatal, or at least a recovery is not at- 

 tained, and urine or feces or both escape freely into the vagina. The 

 simple laceration of the anus is easily sewed up, but the ends of the 

 muscular fibers do not reunite and the control over the lower bowel 

 is never fully reacquired. The successful stitching up of the wound 

 communicating with the bladder or the rectum requires unusual skill 

 and, care, and though I have succeeded in a case of the latter kind, I 

 can not advise the attempt by unprofessional persons. 



BLOOD CLOTS IN THE WALLS OF THE VAGINA. 



(See " Effusion of blood in the vaginal walls," p. 190.)' 



LAMINITIS, OR FOUNDER, FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 



This sometimes follows on inflammation of the womb, as it fre- 

 quently does on disorder of the stomach. Its symptoms agree with 

 those of the common form of founder, and treatment need not differ. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE WOMB AND PERITONEUM. 



These may result from injuries sustained by the womb during or 

 after parturition, froin exposure to cold or wet, or from the irritant 

 infective action of putrid products within the womb. Under the 

 inflammation the womb remains dilated and flaccid, and decomposi- 

 tion of its secretions almost always occurs, so that the inflammation 

 tends to assume a putrid character and general septic infection is 

 likely to occur. 



Symptoms. — ^The symptoms are ushered in by shivering, staring 

 coat, small, rapid pulse, elevated temperature, accelerated breathing, 

 loss of appetite, with arched back, stiff movement of the body, look- 

 ing back at the flanks, and uneasy motions of the hind limbs, dis- 

 charge from the vulva of a liquid at first watery, reddish, or yellow- 

 ish, and later it may be whitish or glairy, and fetid or not in dif- 

 ferent cases. Tenderness of the abdomen shown on pressure is 



