296 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
protruding from the vulva. The fetus was normal in size. There was 
a large amount of free blood in the uterine cavity and extensive extra- 
vasation into the myometrium. The placenta was completely detached. 
Rupture of the uterus and cervix have not been seen, 
but a traumatism of the vagina gave occasion for the 
follomng death: 
Bactrian Camel {Camelus hactrianus) died of shock in labor. Upon 
autopsy the animal was found to have hydatid disease of the liver, lungs, 
and spleen, cirrhosis of the liver, and nephrolithiasis. Protruding from 
the vulva was a portion of the fetal membranes, the whole vaginal wall 
and several coils of intestine which had escaped through a large rent 
in the posterior vaginal Avail. The anterior wall was swollen and edema- 
tous, the whole region surrounded by clotted blood. The cervix was 
obliterated, the membranes unruptured, the fetus in the normal extended 
head presentation. The veil-like placenta was somewhat injected but 
otherwise normal. There was some hemorrhage about the rectum but 
none in the free peritoneum. 
This animal had broken her hind leg just above the 
fetlock three weeks before falling into labor, and was 
unable to stand. It is evident that the difficulty of 
delivery associated with an unnatural and forced 
posture due to the fractured leg was sufficient cause for 
the rupture of the vagina where the tissues were degen- 
erated as a result of the coincident general disease. 
Inversion of the uterus is one of the common acci- 
dents of labor among all animals, most frequently seen 
in ruminants. It is a condition more to be expected in 
lower animals than in man because of the long slender 
relaxed suspensory ligaments, the length of the uterus 
and the rigor of the contractions. The immediate causes 
are those operative for human beings. Three cases are 
recorded — one in an axis deer, one in an opossum, one 
in a mouse, the last being detailed in the following notes : 
A Japanese "Waltzing Mouse {Mus ivagnerii rotans) died a few 
hours after an uneventful labor. On autopsy the entire uterus was 
found inverted and prolapsed, the organ the seat of a violent conges- 
tion, the animal having died of shock. 
