THE knacker’s^business. 383 
verted, it may be distinguished from inversion of the uterus by 
its smaller bulk, by the hand passing into the vagina, and by the 
cervix or pedicle being traced to the meatus; and from a polypus, 
by its villous coat, and by the discharge from the ureters. 
M. Gaullot laments that he had not been earlier called in, 
since he might then have probably returned the viscus to its 
natural situation. We veiy much doubt the possibility of this 
replacement. The violent efforts of parturition could alone accom¬ 
plish the inversion, and that, when the urethra, with all the neigh¬ 
bouring parts, was disposed to dilate. The labour being ended, 
the meatus urinarius, irritated by the presence of a foreign body, 
will begin immediately and powerfully to contract; and small as 
its calibre naturally was, it will now be lessened or obliterated 
by the neck of the bladder, which occupies and distends it. 
There is no way in which it can be got at, to be dilated; and the 
immense pressure necessary to force the bladder back, and 
applied against the villous irritable coat, would produce extreme 
and even fatal inflammation and injury. 
Our advice would be that given by M. G. ^^let her be destroyed 
or, if we were compelled to operate, we should precisely follow 
his scientific method; assured, however, that our poor patient 
must ever be a nuisance to herself and a disgusting object to her 
owner. 
THE following curious account of the knacker^s business is ex¬ 
tracted from the Tocsin, p. 77:— 
The daily consumption of horses in London is about 46, or more 
than 14,000 in the year. The skin of the dead horse is worth 9s.; 
bones, 10s.; flesh, 12s. percwt.; fat, 25s. per cwt., to make soap; 
hoofs, 6s. per hundred, to make Prussian blue, sailors’ buttons, 
and snuff boxes ; hair, tail, and mane, 9d. per lb.; shoes, 10s. 
per cwt.; and marrow. Is. per lb., and which is much used by 
poor people as a remedy for the rheumatism. 
