Mummification 461 



softening, in which, if there is infection present, it is not accom- 

 panied by the ordinary features of putrefaction. The fetus may 

 undergo ordinary putrefactive decomposition, with the formation 

 of gases. The recognized causes of fetal death are considered in 

 the following chapters. 



Mummification. When a fetus dies within the uterus and 

 escapes infection, its fluids and soft parts gradually become ab- 

 sorbed, until finally there remains a hard, dry, blackened fetal 

 mass. The skeleton is complete and perhaps normally formed, 

 the skin intact and probably covered with hair, while the soft 

 parts are wasted, hard and dry. See Fig. 86 and compare with 

 Fig. 81. The cadaver of the fetus is usually without odor and 

 has apparently escaped infection wholly. 



Fig. 86. Mummification ob Fetus. Cow. 



This condition is dependent primarily upon the firm closure, 

 or hermetic sealing, of the os uteri and naturally occurs with 

 greatest frequency, if not wholly, in ruminants, where the long 

 and narrow cervical canal is surrounded by a. great abundance of 

 dense and firmly contracted tissue, which holds and keeps the 

 canal thoroughly closed. Among ruminants it is seen most fre- 

 quently in the cow. As a general rule, death of the fetus occurs 

 from the 5th to the 6th or 7th month and rarely somewhat later, 

 so that the mummified fetus usually measures from 12 to 16 or 

 18 inches in its greatest diameter. In rare cases it may almost 

 reach the normal measurement of a fully developed calf. 



The cause of death, in cases of mummification, is not known 

 and presumably varies according to circumstances. It is only 



