REPORTS OF CASES. 
545 
Finally; On October nth I was called to the Friends* 
School of this city to see a cow that was trying to calve, and 
found a large Holstein with both forward legs of a calf pro¬ 
truding from her vagina. On examination I found an anterior 
presentation, with lateral deviation of the head toward the 
abdomen and deep down in the abdominal cavity of the cow ; 
so much so that I could not bring any part of my hand or 
fingers to touch any part of the head. I at once, after a good 
pull, decided to cut the legs and not waste time trying to 
straighten it. 
Taking a hooked knife, I split the skin of both fore legs 
from the outside of the shoulder to the fetlock, separated the 
joint and then dissected the skin back on each cut through 
the pectoral muscles. I then attached a rope to the knees 
and got a couple of stout men to pull strong and steady, and 
so got the forward extremities all away, one at a time. 
I then passed a rope around the curvature of the neck, 
and again tried the virtue of a good pull, but it was not a suc¬ 
cess. I then with my hooked knife cut into the thoracic 
cavity, cutting along the sternum and emptying it and the 
abdominal cavity of their contents, and had another pull with 
the same result as before. 
Until now the cow had been standing, but now she went 
down on her side and would not make an effort to get up ; 
and oh, how she would strain ! To stop the straining, as I 
could not do a thing, the foetus blocking the cavity so that I 
could not get my hand beyond the rim of the pelvis, I cut a 
slit in her trachea about two inches long, and presto ! no more 
straining, and the cow got up and stood on her feet all the 
rest of the time. 
After she got up I inserted my hooked knife into the 
thoracic cavity of the foetus and got it hooked on to the 
vertebrae, having a good stout cord attached to the handle, and, 
keeping a hand on the handle and letting another man do the 
pulling and I the guiding, 1 soon had the vertebrae separated ; 
and then, with a hook and cord and the help of the men, I 
soon had a part of the neck pulled forward from the skin; 
then with the rope that was around the neck, by pulling tight 
