3.20 
VETERINARY OBSTETRICS. 
the case was protracted longer after lie saw it than before lie was called in. 
The facts are, that the mare brought a cart of coals home from a distance of 
five miles on the forenoon of the day she was taken in foal. I was sent for, 
and saw her about two o’clock, not long after labour had commenced. Mr. 
Gamgee arrived shortly after five, and remained in attendance from that 
time till between ten and eleven o’clock at night (I speak within the 
hours), when he destroyed the mare by “ pithing” with a knife which he 
got from me. 
2. With regard to the want of instruments which Mr. Gamgee complains 
of not being provided with, he was told soon after five o’clock, on his arrival, 
and ascertaining the presentation, and expressing a wish to procure them 
from home, that if he telegraphed for them he would get them by the 
seven o’clock boat; but he declined sending for them, saying he would try 
and do without them. 
The operative proceedings he afterwards resorted to in the various at¬ 
tempts to accomplish delivery, may be shortly summed up. He first ampu¬ 
tated the extended two fore legs of the foal about the knees. I ask if it was 
not malpractice to remove the natural pulleys, which the presenting fore legs 
are, by which traction can in the most effectual way be made to effect extrac¬ 
tion after the necessary means have been used to push back the malpre- 
senting parts ? Was the next step he adopted a justifiable one, of en¬ 
deavouring to push backwards the preternatural presentation, which had, 
by jamming up the passage, obstructed delivery, by the introduction of a 
piece of wood ? Or was the application of iron hooks, which he caused me 
to forge and to fix into the neck of the foal, and by which violent efforts 
in extraction were made, in place of being a means to facilitate the foal, 
not rather one which rendered delivery impracticable by jamming up the 
parts more fixedly within the pelvis ? Is not turning the mare on its back 
the best position in which assistance can be most successfully applied in 
difficult parturition; and when I proposed that to Mr. Gamgee, and to dis¬ 
articulate the head from the neck of the foal—an operation I had performed 
a few years before with a strong knife, in foaling a mare, whose life I saved 
by it, for she speedily recovered, and the only manual help I received was 
from the physical strength of two farm-servants ; and I put it to the veteri¬ 
nary profession to decide, if Mr. Gamgee was justified in rejecting to try 
what I proposed to him before he destroyed the mare? Can Mr. Gamgee 
defend, as scientific practice, the unsuccessful attempt made by the intro¬ 
duction of a piece of wood for the purpose of pushing back the mal- 
presentation ? and would not the continuance of violent force so applied, 
which could neither be regulated nor directed safely, end otherwise than in 
laceration of the soft parts, or rupture of the uterus, without altering the 
preternatural position of the parts ? And lastly, I put it to Mr. Gamgee 
himself, what knowledge has he gained from this case, and to what purpose 
would he apply it in the prelections he gives to his students for the manage¬ 
ment of similar cases ? Whether he recommends them to do as he had done 
in the case I have described—to abandon delivery and destroy a mare under 
a similar duration of labour, that was strong and healthy, with a regular 
pulse, and which had manifested no symptoms of exhaustion, without em¬ 
ploying the different remedial treatment which various respectable veterina¬ 
rians have successfully employed, in cases published by them in reply to my 
communication for information as to the best practical management in diffi¬ 
cult parturition from preternatural presentations; or whether, before putting 
in execution the last sentence of the law, a man should be condemned on his 
own judgment, without consulting with others who may possess more prac¬ 
tical skill, manual dexterity, and that moral courage and physical power, 
qualities which arc indispensable to enable the veterinarian to accomplish 
