504 
VETERINARY OBSTETRICS. 
required. This most practitioners generally have with them 
in their case of pocket instruments. 
In my practice during the last sixteen years, I have had 
eighteen cases requiring embryotomy; eleven in the cow, 
and seven in the mare. Out of these fifteen recovered, and 
three died, one of which had been in labour twenty-four hours, 
and every portion of the calf that could be reached had been 
taken away before my arrival. I removed the remainder by 
the Caesarean operation. The cow died the following day. 
The second was a case of abortion in the mare ; she died 
on the fourth day from absorption of putrid matter from 
the uterus. The cause of death in the third was laceration 
of the womb. Eleven of these cases had been in labour 
from six to thirty-six hours before I saw them, and seven 
were under my care from the commencement. Four of these 
were monstrosities—calves with two heads, and all the organs 
of the thorax double. One had eight legs, and one colt had 
a large misshaped head with curved neck. 
The last case I had to attend was on the £2d of last month ; 
and from the effects of it I am at present suffering from 
slight fever, and a pustular eruption, so well described by 
Mr. Gam gee in the Edinburgh Veterinary Review for July, 
1858. This is the fourth time I have been affected in this 
manner. Once I belive it was caused by removing a putrid 
placenta from a cow. 
The case I am referring to was an old mare, having a 
hollow back, and what we in this country call a broken belly; 
the lower part of the abdomen being as low as the mare’s 
hocks. This animal was observed to be in labour at four 
o’clock in the morning, but she might have been so during 
the greater part of the night. As is usual in such cases, 
when the party in charge of her, and the neighbours, had 
tried all they could unsuccessfully, I was requested to attend. 
This was about ten o’clock. On examination, I found it was 
a breech presentation. The colt was on its back in the 
uterus, the back part of the legs crossing the pelvic opening, 
and the feet opposite the spine of the mother. 
After examining the mare, I was of opinion that no man 
living, with all the obstetric instruments that ever were in¬ 
vented, would be able to relieve her in a standing position. 
She was therefore taken from the field in which she was, and 
put into a large well-littered loose box, and there left to 
herself to lie down of her own accord; after which she 
was well packed up with straw, and pressure applied to the 
abdomen; proper ropes were then attached round the fetlocks 
of the foal, and with the assistance of the hand in the uterus, 
