872 
ON PARTURITION IN THE COW. 
8 a m. — We now tried to pull it away, and I had three persons 
placed at the cords, while I tried to dilate the os uteri. While 
they were pulling, the os uteri was, I should think, about five 
inches out of her body, and it was excessively tight around the 
head ; but, from this force, the stricture became ruptured to the 
extent of four or five inches. The calf then immediately came 
away, and the uterus became inverted. We separated the pla- 
centa as well as we could, as it was not at all sufficiently loose to 
come hastily away, and returned the uterus, and gave opii 3i in 
solution, and then left her. 
As the owner was not over anxious to pay for journeys, although 
a rich man, I did not see her until the 8th of April, when I 
found her appetite very indifferent, and she straining a good deal. 
I ordered some cordial anodyne medicine, and, in the course of 
a week or so, the straining subsided, but she continued to feed 
badly and get worse. 
19 th . — I heard that she was alive, and went over and found her 
very weak; but the straining had entirely left her, and there was 
not the least swelling about the vagina. On introducing my 
hand up the vagina, I dislodged a great deal of, to all appear- 
ance, a thickened inner membrane of the uterus, in a decayed 
state. I pulled it out of the uterus, and it seemed as if it could 
not otherwise have come away, as it was in pieces seven or eight 
inches square, and a quarter of an inch thick. I hoped she 
would have rallied after its removal, and I ordered some cordial 
medicine to be given. 
23 d . — She was lying in the cow-house in a helpless state, and 
the owner had her killed. 
Examination . — The uterus had contracted as well as ever I 
saw one. It was of very small capacity, and contained not above 
a quarter of a pint of matter. There was a distinct cicatrix of 
about four inches long over a part of the os uteri and vagina, 
and where, no doubt, the rupture had taken place. I would say, 
taking the os uteri, uterus, and vagina all together, there was 
little amiss with them, more than after an ordinary case of par- 
turition. The os uteri was a little rigid, but, perhaps, scarcely 
more than usual. The lungs were very light and emphysema- 
tous, and there were, in some of the bronchial tubes, small 
pieces of coagulated matter ; but there was not any thing of much 
consequence, unless the emphysema may be thought so, and this 
was not on the* surface, but in its substance. Every other part 
was sound. 
Observations . — In the volumes of The Veterinarian, there 
are several interesting cases recorded, where the os uteri has 
been so contracted or rigid as to require incision being made 
