CASKS CONNECTED WITH PARTURITION. 
431 
that the last pig had become impacted in the smaller one, which 
was not sufficiently large for it to pass through. I am in- 
clined to believe that the membrane had been, from its appear- 
ance, torn a little at each end by the force from behind in the 
action of the uterus, and at the other end by the force we used 
in trying to get the pig away. This case would not allow us to 
get the whole hand in ; nor could 1 get the hook behind the head, 
or a noose on the jaws. The vagina, in this case, was about 
twelve inches long beyond the division, and very capacious. 
Two of these pigs came away with the rump forward ; and I 
am inclined to think, from observations during pigging times 
and dissections, that one-half of them come in that position. 
I fancy that, in parturitions of the sow, the great action in the 
expulsion of the foetus must be in the vagina, which is strong and 
capacious. The vagina in this case, although it was her first 
“ belly of pigs,” was, I should think, two feet long before reach- 
ing the bifurcation of the uterus ; indeed, I would say that the 
uterus was made up of the two bifurcations only. There are 
separate placental membranes, though slightly connected together, 
which is shewn by pulling one out and the other passing with 
it. In this case the vagina was not injured by the hook; but, 
for a short distance before reaching the pig that we could not 
extract, there was a distinct demarcation, a line which was 
abraded and rough from the action of our fingers, &c. If this 
sow had been a poor one, and but of little value, I should have 
advised the pig to have been left in her, iq the hope of its decay- 
ing away ; but as she was fat I advised her being killed, be- 
cause I feared she would die from the injury she had sustained in 
the assistance that was attempted. 
NON-EXTRACTION OF THE FCF.TUS OF A EWE. 
On the 7th April, 1842, I was sent for to Mr. Dickins, of the 
Black Park, to attend a yearling ewe that could not yean. The 
os uteri was pretty freely dilated, but only the poll of the head was 
presented, and the nose was pointing down towards the udder. 
As there is but little room in some of these animals to admit the 
hand, we can often only use the fingers ; but in this case I could 
not even get my fingers to reach the nose and pull it straight. 
I therefore worked through the skin, and pulled the skull to 
pieces, which I in part removed, by which means I was enabled, 
with great difficulty, to get the head into its proper position. I 
then pulled at the lamb, but could not get it away, for it broke 
off about the second or third cervical vertebra. After this we 
were enabled only to get two more bones of the neck away, and 
we then left her to her fate, hoping that the foetus might gradu- 
