702 
ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
large size, so as to render the spontaneous reduction difficult, 
the suture of the vulva should be resorted to as a preventive ; 
notwithstanding the inversion, the cows might be in perfect 
health, bear a calf every year, and give a good quantity of 
milk; they require only a little extra care at the time of par- 
turition, which should not be hastened by untimely inter- 
ference before the second water bladder appears,* which, when 
torn open, exposes the limbs of the foetus, which, the presenta- 
tion being natural, might be taken hold of, and with a mode- 
rate traction the parturition accomplished, always taking 
advantage of the straining of the animal, and ceasing the 
traction the moment the efforts of nature are suspended. As 
soon as the expulsion of the new-born subject is completed, 
it is necessary to make the animal get up ; this will tend to 
replace the uterus and vagina should there be a tendency to 
inversion. But our object is only the practical examination 
of chronic inversion of the vagina, that organ presenting 
itself in the shape of a considerable tumour, which does no 
longer reduce itself when the animal is standing, and has 
become irritated by the alvine evacuations, dirt of the litter, 
the action of the air, friction of the tail, and other hard bodies, 
causing its membrane to become ulcerated, discharging a 
bloody ichorous fluid, and giving to it a disgusting aspect 
which is increased by the thickening of the mucous mem- 
brane, consequent on the infiltration and the hardening of the 
subjacent cellular tissue. 
Sometimes the inverted organ acquires a considerable size, 
rendering the reduction difficult without the assistance of the 
scientific practitioner. This stage is accompanied by impaired 
digestion, and consequently loss of flesh and emaciation of the 
animal, to which might be added other causes of exhaustion, 
such as the bad quality or insufficiency of fodder, perhaps a 
live foetus in the uterus. Nothing would be more disastrous 
than the effects of a pessary or bandage which would complete 
the work of destruction. We do not deny that the prolapsus 
of the vagina may become serious, even mortal ; and we admit 
that it is in the last months of gestation that the animal affected 
is in some danger. The reduction of the introverted vagina 
is not very difficult ; a few manipulations will frequently 
suffice to effect it. The operatory process in the most diffi- 
cult cases is as follows : — The animal being placed on an 
inclined plane, the fore part being lowest, an assistant holds 
* In a work on Parturition, the author describes two water-bags in the 
large animals, more particularly in the cow, one formed by the allantoid, 
which appears in the form of an elongated bladder, and the second one 
formed by the amnios. — Yide Annales Veterinaires , Juin, 1861. 
