426 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
On May ist of this year I was called a distance of twenty 
miles in the country to see a mare unable to foal. Upon my 
arrival I found a large draft mare weighing about 1600 pounds 
stretched out at full length near a strawstack in a field. The 
mare had been in the throes of labor for a period of twelve 
hours previous to my arrival, but without showing any sign of 
the “ water bag.” She was after much difficulty got upon her 
feet and taken to the barn, and placed in a large roomy stall. 
Upon introducing the hand deep into the vaginal canal, 
numerous tense heavy folds of tissue were encountered. As 
the mare was twelve years old, and this being her first foal, 
fibrous occlusion of the os uteri was suspected. After much 
patient manipulation, aided by copious injections of tepid water, 
the hand was with great difficulty passed through the os uteri 
and into the uterus, where the foal’s nose could be barely 
touched with the tips of the fingers. 
In introducing the hand through the vaginal canal and 
into the uterus, it was noticed that the passage was sharply de¬ 
flected towards the right flank of the mare, and it suddenly 
occurred to me that instead of a fibrous occlusion of the vagina 
or uterus, I had to contend with a case of torsion of the uterus, 
of a half turn nature and that the twist was from right to left. 
Several attempts were then made to effect retroposition of 
the uterus, but without avail, and the attempts had to be aban¬ 
doned on account of the powerful labor pains, which rendered 
the hand and arm when in the constricted passage, entirely use¬ 
less. Seeing the hopelessness of any such attempts to effect 
retroposition of the twisted uterus, hobbles were placed upon 
the mare and she was thrown down and placed under the in¬ 
fluence of chloroform. The mare was then turned completely 
over again and again, while the arm was in situ in the twisted 
vagina, and the attempt was made to untwist the contorsion 
when the mare was rolled in the opposite direction. 
The most herculean efforts on my part failed to effect any 
change in the twisted uterus, and, being completely exhausted 
by the several hours of hard work, the attempt to effect deliv¬ 
ery was abandoned and the mare was destroyed by chloroform 
narcosis. 
The post-mortem examination revealed the correctness of 
the diagnosis ; there being a half twist of the uterus from 
right to left. The uterus contained a full grown foal lying 
with its back to the mare’s right flank, the fore feet retracted 
backwards, with the head close to the os uteri. 
