ON INVERSION OF THE UTERUS. 
363 
myself bound to do so, having received from some of the brighter 
ornaments of the medical profession (at a time when it was most 
needed) the greatest possible kindness that one man could receive 
from another, and which, please God, I shall remember as long as 
I live. 
Like Mr. Barker, I will avoid technicalities, and answer his 
questions as plainly as I can, which I consider by far the best 
way. The subject I allude to is, inversion of the uterus. As a 
country practitioner, I never decline attending upon any animals, 
and consequently am occasionally called in to attend cows, as well 
as other animals, during and after parturition. We must, of course, 
take the good with the bad, and, now and then, we meet with such 
cases as Mr. Barker wishes to gain some information upon. It 
has fallen to my lot to be called in to two of these cases within 
the last month ; — one a heifer with her first calf — the other, a cow 
that I understood had had two calves previously. 
As to the particular cases of parturition in which inversion is 
likelv to take place, or the immediate cause, I cannot offer a satis- 
factory opinion, for I have known it under various circumstances. 
In the two cases I have just mentioned, the heifer required assist- 
ance ; the other had none. In both cases there was a complete in- 
version of the uterus. 
As Mr. Barker has numbered his queries, it will be as well, 
perhaps, to answer them accordingly. I will, however, first say, 
that in the cases of which he speaks, where death took place from 
mortification, this, in my opinion, must have arisen from entire 
neglect. I have had many cases of the kind, but never did such 
an one as this happen to me since I have been in practice. 
1st Quest. — I think I have in some measure answered this by 
mentioning the two cases above, in which I stated that one calved 
without any assistance ; and I have known it happen to others 
under similar circumstances — sometimes the uterus only partially 
protruding, and at other times being wholly inverted. 
2d. — As regards flooding. I have occasionally (not always), 
immediately after the expulsion of the foetus, found nearly or quite 
a quart of blood escape from the vagina, but I never knew it con- 
tinue to flow. What has been ejected has generally come away 
at once. More, perhaps, may flow into the cavity of the uterus, 
but it does not escape. The plan I adopt under such circum- 
stances may, perhaps, partly account for that, as I always endea- 
vour to check the animal from straining, and keep her on her legs 
for a time : the uterus then lying rather low, there is no further 
escape of blood, unless from some sudden exertion like coughing. 
3d. — When the uterus has been inverted for some time, there 
is occasionally great difficulty in returning it, as the animal fre- 
