REMARKS ON PARTURITION IN ANIMALS. 657 
tional cases. The experience of the last hundred years has 
not shown that there is any marked delay between the births 
of mature twins. Pluriparity he believed to be hereditary, 
so far as all diseases or morbid conditions are hereditary, but 
we have no positive proof of it. He understood that twins 
were not the result of disease, as Dr. Bell seemed to imagine 
he did, but that the fact of having twins constituted the 
disease. 
II .—Mummified Premature Calf expelled long after its Death 
in Utero—Missed Labour . 
It is well known with what extreme care fine black cattle 
are nowadays tended. From this cause, and from other cir¬ 
cumstances which need not be mentioned, details of their 
cases are more easily and more certainly ascertained than 
those of women. The quey, from which this mummified 
calf was discharged, was a famous animal, and belonged to a 
celebrated herd of polled Angus. She was a winner of prizes, 
and was considered by her owner so fine as to be destined 
to propagate the famous qualities of the herd. On 8th July, 
1865, she was inseminated by a still more famous bull. 
Pregnancy went on as usual for a time, but in December she 
was taken with the dreaded epidemic of rinderpest, and no 
doubt at this time the foetal calf died. The herd was nearly 
extirpated by the pestilence, but this young cow made good 
its recovery. No calf made its appearance, nor any signs of 
labour at the time of the foetal death, nor at the term of ordi¬ 
nary pregnancy. The fine heifer, if not in disgrace, had at 
least disappointed the hopes of her admirers. An order was 
issued to feed her for the butcher, and she formed a magni¬ 
ficent and much-admired specimen of a mart. But on 18th 
October, 1867, in the course of the extreme fattening which 
she underwent, the almost forgotten pregnancy was recalled 
to mind. The mummified calf here exhibited was expelled, 
and I understand without any effort, such as is seen in ordi¬ 
nary parturition, two years and three and a half months after 
insemination. It is natural, and probably correct to sup¬ 
pose that the expulsion was the mechanical result of the 
accumulation of fat in the omentum or thereabout ; that the 
calf was displaced and squeezed out by the accumulating 
adipose matter. 
The case just narrated is an example of death and mummi¬ 
fication of a premature calf. Abortion did not follow the 
death of the foetus, as in the ordinary course of events. 
Nor did air or germs get admission to the calf, and lead to 
