620 
INVERSION OF THE UTERUS, 
the patient, who had suffered much, still possessed a good deal 
of strength. She was agitated; her pulse was hard, small, and 
accelerated ; the skin and the extremities were cold; the muzzle 
dry; the eyes wild ; and the respiration accompanied by a plain¬ 
tive sound. She lay down and raised herself again every minute, 
making violent efforts as if to expel something. The womb was 
completely inverted and protruded. It hung down as low as the 
hocks. The contact of the cold air, and of the straw, dung, &c., 
had so irritated it, that the mucous membrane was of a violet 
colour, thickened, cedematous, ulcerated, and everywhere cold. 
Before I proceeded to the reduction of the part, I took away 
a portion of the placenta, which yet adhered; I cleansed the 
uterus from the litter and dung with which it was covered; I 
emptied the rectum and the bladder; and I washed the protruded 
womb with a warm mucilaginous decoction of aromatic herbs. 
All these things being carefully done, I attempted the reduc¬ 
tion, which was very difficult. Two persons sustained the 
uterus by means of a cloth, and we had hard work to overcome 
the resistance occasioned by the volume, the thickness, and the 
weight of the womb, and more particularly the continued and 
violent efforts of the patient to expel it again. Nevertheless, I 
at length succeeded, with no other accident than the tearing off 
of a few of the uterine cotyledons, and from which there was 
little or no hsemorrhage. I then proceeded to endeavour to 
prevent the return of the accident by means of the pessory, with 
the broad shield expansion at its base, recommended by M. Le 
Blanc. A bleeding of eight pounds was made from the saphe¬ 
na and teat veins; and vapour baths, emollient injections, and 
drinks of the same nature, rendered slightly narcotic by a de¬ 
coction of poppy heads, were admini stered. But soon the beast 
made new and violent efforts; a considerable enlargement of 
the abdomen began to be visible; and the matrix was again 
displaced. Eyes starting from their sockets, a pulse almost 
imperceptible, respirations short and strangely accelerated, ex¬ 
tremities cold, all announced approaching death. The general 
oppression was at its height, and the danger of suffocation 
was imminent, unless puncture of the rumen was immediately 
performed. The proprietor regarded her as lost. I had a 
straight bistoury; I plunged it vertically into the paunch, direct¬ 
ing its point towards the middle of the left flank: in an in¬ 
stant the gas, and the aliments which distended the stomach, 
escaped with impetuous rapidity; and the beast experienced, all 
at once, a marked relief. I fixed in the opening into the rumen 
a tube of elder-wood, with its pith withdrawn. I replaced the 
uterus, and prescribed a severe diet, cooling drinks, injections. 
