A CASE OF INFLAMMATION OF THE UTEllUS. 463 
majority of the speakers that these terms were inappropriate, as 
not properly characterizing the true nature of the disease. It is 
not, however, true that inflammation of the womb does never 
follow cases of parturition ; on the contrary, I should say, that 
it is always a concomitant to a greater or less degree ; but, for- 
tunately for the animal, it generally passes over without any 
fatal effects resulting from it ; yet this is not always the case, 
as the following history will prove : — 
I was called upon to see a three-year old heifer, belonging to 
Mr. J. Gornall, on the 24th of March 1836, at noon : the heifer 
had calved on the 21st, at night. 
Great violence had been used in the delivery, which was com- 
pleted in a little more than an hour. She was in very high con- 
dition at the time, and had a considerable quantity of ale given 
to her before and after the calf was extracted. A large quantity 
of oatmeal was also given by order of a farrier who had 
the management of the case until my arrival, and who had on 
the same day introduced his hand and arm, and emptied the 
contents of a small bottle into the uterus. On being asked by 
the owner what the bottle contained, he replied, double distilled 
oil ; and he desired the owner to introduce his hand in the same 
manner six hours afterwards, and convey into the womb a quan- 
tity of hog’s-lard, in order to keep the passage open, as he 
termed it, the discharge being pent up. 
The cow was lying down, and straining violently. The horns 
and ears were hot; the mouth hot and dry; the conjunctival 
membrane very vascular; the labia pudendi much swollen; 
great difficulty in voiding urine ; the pulse between 130 and 
140, and the bowels not very costive. The straining had been 
much aggravated by the owner introducing his hand into the 
womb a very short time before I saw her, and she had begun 
to strain twelve hours before. 
I had recourse to venesection to the amount of 16ffcj, and ad- 
ministered ^xij mag. sulph., ordering fomentations of hot water 
to the loins and vulva. I also injected, per anum, an infusion 
of 3 iss of opium. 
In four hours afterwards, the pulse was as frequent and as hard 
as before, and no symptom much abated. I bled again to the extent 
of 61b, and gave mag. sulph. ^viij. The straining being nearly 
as violent as before, I dissolved a drachm of opium in a quart of 
boiling water, and, when nearly cold, injected it into the womb. 
The cow was now very often lying down and getting up, con- 
tinually shifting her position, and expressing the most excru- 
ciating pain. The secretion of milk had been entirely arrested 
nearly from the commencement : all kinds of food were refused. 
