REPORTS OF CASES. 
115 
and strained so violently, that it was deemed best to lay her 
down and administer a small amount of chloroform to quiet her. 
After this was done, one of the foal’s limbs was removed at the 
shoulder joint, which gave room for the introduction of the hand, 
when the back of the foal’s head could be felt in the left side of 
the womb. The foal’s head was turned backward and the nose 
rested against its right side. After several arduous attempts, a 
cord was finally placed around the neck, and the head being 
’ then rotated it was drawn up into the passage and delivery was 
quickly accomplished. 
During the interval of securing the foal's head the mare 
acted quite strong, in spite of the benumbing influence of the 
chloroform, and at times would strain quite strongly. At no 
time during the period of removing the foal was there complete 
chloroform anaesthesia. After removal of the foal and the se- 
cundines, the mare had an attack of syncope, from which she 
was rallied with difficulty. At this time every person who was 
present thought the syncope to be due to chloroform narcosis 
and I was somewhat inclined to the same view, although I was 
unable to account how so small an amount of the drug (nine 
drachms) could produce such a serious systemic effect. The 
mare would rally from one fainting spell only to relapse in a 
few minutes into another one, and in one of these, about 30 
minutes after delivery, she quietly died. 
Having used chloroform in general practice for sixteen years 
without any fatal or untoward results, I was much chagrined at 
the general opinion of the owner and the other persons present 
that the mare’s death was due to chloroform. I, therefore, in 
justice to myself, asked the owner’s permission to hold a post¬ 
mortem examination, a request he readily granted. 
On opening the abdominal cavity a large amount of clotted 
arterial blood was seen resting upon and among the superior 
portion of the intestines and womb, while the lower abdominal 
cavity was filled with a large amount of blood-colored watery 
fluid. On searching for the origin of this haemorrhage, it was 
found in the internal iliac artery, which was ruptured just below 
the junction where it leaves the posterior aorta. The rupture 
was due no doubt to the violent throes of straining in which 
the animal indulged after the owner had made his first manual 
examination. The owner was now perfectly satisfied as to the 
cause of the mare’s death when he placed his finger into the 
ruptured artery. 
Thus by the post-mortem was removed the odium cast upon 
