COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY. 
557 
a half expired before all the extraneous matter was by it removed. 
This accomplished, with a pair of scissors the fibrinous tumours 
were snipped off. The hemorrhage was trivial ; but there yet 
remained marks of bruises and signs of laceration which could 
not be cut away. To these a spirituous solution of nitric acid — a 
drachm to the ounce — was applied, and the entire of the exposed 
surface dressed with it. 
Knowing the peculiar form of the passage, I was able to return 
the womb, and met with little obstruction. Up to this point I had 
succeeded better than at first I hoped ; but here came the diffi- 
culty. The uterus was replaced, but how was it to be retained ] 
The irritability of the system would have a natural tendency to 
reject the viscus, and the lotion I had used was not of a soothing 
quality. To render the case more desperate, there was the 
knowledge of the temperament and habits of the animal — its 
manner of sitting — its mode of curving the spine to void its feces — 
the marked excitability of its generative organs — and its peculiar 
sensitiveness to suffering. 
To own the truth, I had done so much more than, seeing the 
hardened and lacerated condition of the parts I had in the first 
instance anticipated was possible, that I was not exactly prepared 
for my good fortune. I remained for some time thinking, and, 
really puzzled, requested those present not to speak. 1 wanted 
some combination of medicine which I could not satisfactorily pro- 
cure. A sedative to the general system was required, but not one 
that should depress ; as, after operations of this description, the vital 
powers are disposed to sink, and therefore generally require to be 
stimulated. I moreover wanted an excitant to the uterus. Many 
things were hastily thought of, and as quickly rejected ; and, in 
my difficulty, I was at last obliged to ask advice of those about 
me. A bandage or harness to pass over the parts was suggested ; 
but the almost impossibility of fixing it properly, and the mis- 
chievous ingenuity the dog exhibits with its teeth, rendered this 
plan obviously inappropriate. One person proposed to adopt the 
custom — sometimes, T am sorry to say, followed by cow-leeehes — of 
passing stitches through the labia. The brutal and unjustifiable 
practice was of course rejected, and, I trust, by the members of the 
veterinary profession it is never embraced. 
Fairly at my wits’ end, I suddenly determined to try how the 
injection of cold water into the uterus would act. I knew of no 
case in which this agent had been employed, and could not feel 
confidence concerning the consequences of the experiment, but, in 
despair, I resolved to hazard it. A quantity fresh from the pump 
was therefore obtained, and it was thrown up, being allowed to 
flow back. A stream of cold water was thus made to pass over 
