158 THE MANAGEMENT AND DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



and the patient placed on a rug over a thick bed of straw. 

 Strict quietude was ordered, and a little brandy and milk only 

 to be given in two hours. 



" At six o'clock on the same evening I visited my patient 

 and, with much regret, learned she had just expired. I was 

 informed she had not shown any symptoms of pain or uneasi- 

 ness since the operation ; that she had risen to her feet a few 

 moments before she died, walked to her master, and wagged 

 her tail. 



" In this case death resulted from sheer exhaustion. No 

 support of any description had been given to the poor crea- 

 ture but what she chose herself to take, until I first arrived. 

 She had been in severe labor for many hours ; and only the 

 following morning was any assistance rendered^and that, until 

 my services were requested, had been rough, unpractical, and 

 injurious. 



" I feel convinced that had the operation been performed 

 seven or eight hours earlier, the mother's life would have 

 been saved ; or that, in the first instance, proper assistance 

 would have procured a natural birth of the abnormally pre- 

 sented one. ■ The whelps that were alive are being reared by 

 hand, and, so far, are doing well." 



On the Continent some interesting cases of this operation 

 are recorded. Among others, Mr. Fleming, in the obstetrical 

 work alluded to, gives the following : 



" Brooks and Whiteworth (Ibid., vol. xxxix., p. 33) relate 

 the history of a bitch, which, while pregnant, had its pelvis 

 injured by being run over by a carriage. When parturition 

 had been going on fruitlessly for some time, an examination 

 was made, and it was discovered, that owing to the fracture 

 of the pelvis, just above the symphysis pubis, the dimensions 

 of the canal were greatly reduced and altered in form, so that 

 the finger could scarcely be passed. Chloroform was admin- 

 istered ; the hair removed from the skin in the right iliac re- 

 gion, where the incision was made. Two puppies were re- 

 moved ; the wound in the uterus closed by silver wire suture. 



