VETERINARY OBSTETRICS. 
311 
was pulled on with great force by the many assistants, but in vain. This I 
accounted for from the strength of the foetus and the skin not having been 
fully detached over the shoulder. Any person having attempted this 
operation in the cow and the mare, must be aware of the greater difficulty 
experienced in dismembering the foetus of the latter. Not to injure the 
mare by undue violence, I divided the muscle, as well as I could, round the 
shoulder-joint, and caused the assistants to pull. The capsular ligament of 
the latter stood enormous traction, and while assistants were pulling, I 
divided this and removed the limb. 
“ I then constructed a repoussoir or instrument to push on the sternum, 
and attempted to draw forward the neck. I first implanted the hooks, as well 
as I could, in the neck, pulling the foetus forward by the skin of the ex¬ 
tremities. Then, whilst pushing back the foal, I caused assistants to pull 
on the neck, but almost invariably with the result of the hooks losing hold, 
or the neck remaining immoveable. To complete embryotomy with the 
penknife I had, I found quite futile. Considering the exhaustion of the 
marc, though doubtless she had sustained the operation better than might 
have been expected, the small chance of recovery under any circumstances, 
but especially if I delayed till next day (Sunday), when instruments could 
be obtained, I recommended the mare to be put out of pain. The owner of 
the mare was ill in bed, but his son-in-law thought it was the best course to 
adopt, and urged to kill the mare at once. 
“ I am aware that many ring into our ears, so long as there is life there is 
hope; but as veterinarians, we know that there are many cases in which the 
destruction of the animal is far preferable to a slow but certain death. 1 
remember a farmer calling me, at a considerable distance from Edinburgh, to 
see a recent case of compound comminuted fracture of the hock-bones, and 
I advised the horse to be at once destroyed. I was regarded as little short 
of iusane, and was told that it was my duty to cure, and not to kill. The 
horse was slung, and with violent irritative fever lingered in torture about 
a fortnight, and died. 
“ I need not, however, depart from cases of difficult labour to prove 
whether my judgment in the foregoing case was correct. On the 3d of 
June I was summoned by telegraph to Glendeuglie, in Perthshire, to attend 
a mare. I was in the country when the despatch arrived, but left by first 
train next morning. One of my pupils, Mr. A. C. Muir, veterinary surgeon 
at Auchtermuchty, happening to be at Newburgh market the previous day, 
was requested by Mr. Laing, of Glendeuglie, to proceed to the latter place 
and attend a mare which could not foal. On arriving at the farm, he found 
a veterinary surgeon had been called by the grieve, and with the assistance 
of his father, was attempting to deliver. All these gentlemen were actively 
engaged in these operations, and seemed to need no assistahee. Mr. Muir 
for some time stood by and observed what was being done. Several hours 
were spent with hooks and ropes, and other instruments, and the mare was 
left. Mr. Muir had protested on various occasions at the roughness with 
which the mare was handled, and was afterwards asked to attempt delivery. 
This he refused, in the first place, because his assistance had not been 
sought by the veterinary surgeon; and, in the second, as so much had been 
done he regarded the case as thus rendered perfectly hopeless. Mr. Laing 
telegraphed for me, and, on arriving at Glendeuglie, i found the mare stand¬ 
ing, very much depressed, with sunken head, no throes, swollen vulva, 
lacerated vagina, and discharge of a most offensive nature from the latter. 
I found the presentation precisely similar to the former one, and stated that, 
provided as I then was with instruments, I could perform embryotomy, but 
the mare would certainly sink in the course of a few hours. Mr. Laing was 
fmxious I should give her every chance of life, and with great care the fore 
