VETERINARY OBSTETRICY. 
677 
cases we have only simply to introduce one hand into the uterus, 
and draw the legs up one after the other into their proper place ; but 
if, from the narrowness of the passage, and from the head being in 
our way, we are unable to do this, we must force the latter within the 
uterus, and afterwards get them up ; and, having done so, of course 
we use the same means as in a natural presentation, before described. 
Head and Knees presenting. 
In these cases the foetus must be forced back, and the legs got 
up into their proper positions. I have heard, when this presenta- 
tion has taken place, of cords being fastened around the knees, and 
the foetus extracted in this position, but I do not at all advise such 
a procedure. In getting the feet right we must not attempt to 
force the foetus back during the throes of labour, or we may rup- 
ture the uterus. In the first volume of The VETERINARIAN I 
have recorded a case of this description, where the mare was found, 
dead in consequence, and unable to foal. Her vagina and dia- 
phragm were ruptured, and the bowels protruded through the 
former. 
Large Head. 
It is well known that some males of every animal will get stock 
whose heads are particularly large. Whenever this is the case it 
is a serious objection, since many animals may be sacrificed 
during the act of parturition. Mr. Price, in his work on Sheep, 
page 44, well illustrates this subject, by observing that “ a grazier 
in Appledore employed Leicester rams for several years, and ob- 
tained a breed with very small heads and kindly disposition : but 
he objected that they were not large enough, and did not fetch a 
good price at market; he therefore, in the summer of 1804, hired 
some large Kentish rams, to give him size, as he called it. In the 
following lambing time he lost twelve ewes in lambing, from the 
largeness of the lambs’ heads, and he was obliged to draw almost 
all his young ewe lambs. In 1806 he had the same difficulty to 
encounter, and his loss amounted to nine ewes out of 250 from this 
cause alone.” 
I have known a great many bulls whose get have been very 
large, particularly in the head, and sometimes in the hips, causing 
great difficulty and danger in extracting them. In these instances, 
the owners, from finding what difficulty there was at calving time, 
and the risk they ran in losing some of their cows, have sold their 
bulls, and obtained others whose breed had not this objection. 
VOL. XVIII. 4 z 
