124 
THE CAESAREAN OPERATION ON A COW. 
are readily closed by a natural process. A cordial drink was ad¬ 
ministered, and the beast very soon afterwards got up. Bitter 
tonics and cordial drinks were then given, and for some days after¬ 
wards, but, on the day after the operation, the appetite returned, 
and rumination w'as established. Fifteen days passed on, and 
every thing announced the completest success ; when the proprie¬ 
tor, deeming his beast to be altogether out of the reach of danger, 
and tired of seeing her kept on a restricted diet, inconsiderately 
gave her a quantity of lucern. Hoove speedily followed, and 
she died. 
M. Gohier relates another unfortunate case, which occurred in 
his practice. A ewe, four years old, was brought to him on account 
of protracted parturition. The animal had endured the extremest 
suffering during twelve hours. There were now very slight efforts 
to expel the foetus—excessive debility—very great inflammation 
and swelling of the lips of the vulva—the evident death of the little 
one, and the appearance of about three inches of the anterior ex¬ 
tremities, without that of the head, which was bent backwards, 
over the withers—these w’ere the principal things that presented 
themselves, and the laborious parturition appeared to be attributa¬ 
ble to the narrow diameter of the pelvis. Many prolonged efforts 
were uselessly practised to effect the extraction of the lamb, and, 
perhaps, they contributed even more than the subsequent operation 
to hasten a fatal termination of the case. The impossibility of ex¬ 
tracting the foetus :being at length sufficiently apparent, and the 
animal appearing to be otherwise irrecoverably lost, M. Gohier 
proceeded to the Csesarean operation, and which he attempted in 
the right flank. He made an incision through the skin and the 
muscular substance five inches in length, and then, pushing aside 
the mass of intestines, he effected a similar incision into the uterus, 
and extracted the foetus and the placenta. The intestines were 
now replaced in their natural position, and the external wound 
closed by means of sutures. The wound was properly dressed—a 
bandage was applied over it, and, the sheep appearing to be ex¬ 
tremely exhausted, a decoction of gentian was forced upon her. 
She died on the following day. 
On examining her after death, very great inflammation of the 
uterus and vagina, and some portions of the small intestines, were 
apparent. The pelvic cavity was very small and irregular, in con¬ 
sequence of an old fracture which the ileum had experienced. The 
sacral bone formed a considerable obliquity in the cavity of the 
pelvis—a slight exostosis had grown there, and the head of the 
foetus was arrested by it. The vagina and the uterus w'ere sadly 
bruised and inflamed by the attempts forcibly to extract the lamb. 
M. Chretien, in the fiftli Number of the “ Journal Pratique de 
Medicine Yeterinaire,” states some other cases, of which the fol- 
