VETERINARY OBSTETR1CY. 
139 
the foetus lay in the body of the uterus, whilst one of the hind ex- 
tremities lay at full length in one of the horns, the opening into 
which was not far distant from the os uteri, as was clearly seen on 
opening her. It may be observed, that all the time my assistant 
was striving to force the breech forward, to make room to get the 
leg up, he was actually obstructing the passage by impacting the 
limb. 
If a similar case should occur again, our best plan would be to 
pass a cord around the limb, as close as possible to the hock, and 
draw it into the vagina, and afterwards amputate it at the hock in 
the way above described. If we do not succeed, we must make an 
incision into the muscles covering both sides of the ilio-femoral 
articulation, and afterwards, with strong hooks, disarticulate the 
femur and draw the limb out : having done so, we must insert 
hooks to pull at, either into the acetabulum or into the obtinator- 
foramen; by which means, and by pulling at the other extremity, 
we shall readily extract the foetus. 
Contraction of the Muscles of the Hind Extremities 
TOWARDS THE BODY AND HlPS. 
Some years ago I was called in to a cow that could not calve. 
It was a breech presentation only. 1 introduced my hand and 
passed cords around the legs, and with little difficulty succeeded in 
pulling the hind legs into a proper position. They were not near 
so low down as usual ; but I found, when forcing the breech for- 
ward by pulling pretty freely at the legs, that the latter did not 
fairly give way and project straight out as in ordinary cases. As 
I had met before with several cases where, by a little extra pulling, 
the hind legs had slipped over the brim of the pelvis and had sud- 
denly projected straight out, I concluded that the same means 
would have been successful here : but this I found was not the 
case ; for after three or four of us had been pulling at the legs for 
a short time, one gave way between the metatarsal bones and the 
tarsus, and soon afterwards the limb came off. I then secured the 
cord around the lower part of the tibia, where it was well retained 
by the projection of the os calcis. Soon after this the other limb 
broke off in the same place that the former had done, but it did 
not entirely come away. Seeing no other chance of reaching it, and 
believing that it was in a proper position, I had greater strength 
called in, and soon extracted it, but not without considerable 
force being used. She died the next day. The uterus was rup- 
tured. 
Examination of the Foetus . — It was soon discovered that the 
