146 PRETERNATURAL PRESENTATION OF THE HEAD. 
bv the two assistants operating during the interval of uterine 
action, in the manner I have described. Without the space 
afforded by this proceeding I could not have succeeded. 
The necessary and preliminary step towards turning the 
foal’s head was the pressing backwards of those parts which 
had been propelled into, and filled up the vaginal passage. 
It is obvious that no amount of extracting force applied 
either to the neck or the feet could have brought away the 
foal. On the contrary, such an attempt would only have 
rendered delivery impracticable by jamming up immoveably 
the presenting parts. 
The foal when born was in a very weak state, but by the 
application of friction to the body, which was continued for 
some time, it gradually recovered. For eight days it sucked, 
and appeared to be going on well, when it was seized with 
enteritis, of which disease it died. The mare made an excel¬ 
lent recovery, and is in foal again. 
Mr Calley, in his paper, solicits information “for the prac¬ 
ticable management of similar cases.” Mr. Calley, who lives 
within my professional circuit, and is an intelligent and active 
smith and farrier, informs me that he had stated to Mr. 
Gamgee, before the mare was destroyed by him, that he had, 
about three years before, in a presentation of the hind part of 
the head and neck, disarticulated the foal’s head with a strong 
knife, from the vertebral column, and saved the mare, which 
had a good recovery, and was soon at work. By continued 
manipulation and strong traction he succeeded in turning 
and bringing away the head; and using the fore legs, which 
protruded, and were not amputated, as a pulley, he was 
enabled without difficulty to extract the body. Mr. Gamgee, 
however, did not approve of the proposal, and said it was of 
no use, and would not do. Surely every operative pro¬ 
ceeding which holds out a reasonable chance of saving the 
life of a mare, even at the sacrifice of the foal, ought to be 
tried before passing “the last sentence of the law” on the 
mother. 
Although by the operative process adopted in my case I 
succeeded in saving both, without mutilating the foal or 
injuring the mother, I admit that in a first labour, and 
especially in a narrow or contracted pelvis, the life of the 
offspring may be somewhat endangered, but that of the 
parent, in my opinion, may always be reasonably reckoned 
on. 
Let me add, in conclusion, that the practice I recommend 
can only be successfully carried out by an amount of phy- 
