446 
HtTBERT T. EOOTE. 
From the corral, some half a dozen of the remaining 31 cows 
were driven into a chute, (a narrow alley about 18 inches wide at 
the bottom, and wider above, for the free passage of the animal,) 
where each received a rectal injection of warm water. After 
waiting some 15 minutes for them to evacuate their bowels, dur¬ 
ing which time only two did so and they only partially, each was 
bound by ropes, and I began operating, first however causing them 
to expel the injected water, by mechanically starting it with my 
hand. Let it suffice to say, that the rectal injection of water for 
the purpose of emptying the bowels was a failure, and I used it in 
none of my succeeding operations. 
The cows, by the time I began operating, had become pretty 
well excited from having quite a drive in being gathered, and 
considerable running in being “cut” out from the herd. All, 
with the exception of one, I think, were with calf, and two, I should 
judge, were in about the seventh month of gestation. I did not 
favor operating on pregnant cows, but as it was almost impossi¬ 
ble to find any that were not so, I had no alternative. 
I met with considerable difficulty in operating on this lot of 
animals, as they were insecurely bound, and had been maddened 
by severe clubbing which they had received at the time of bind¬ 
ing, so that they struggled in most cases considerably; besides 
often by compressing their abdomen or trying to lie down, which 
threw the weight of their hind parts upon a bar placed under the 
abdomen to keep them from doing so, they would press the inter¬ 
nal viscera back into the pelvic cavity. However, I spayed 
them at the rate of about four an hour, failing to accomplish my 
object in the two which were so heavy in calf, in these, being 
able to reach only one ovary; the other on the same side as the 
cornua in which the calf lay, having been drawn so far forward 
by the weight of the foetus, was beyond my reach. In both of 
these cases I predicted death. After finishing the work, the cows 
were driven about a mile in all to water and then to pasture. In 
driving them they seemed to walk a little stiff, with their tails ele¬ 
vated, only one showing any signs of colic and she only slightly. 
They all drank well and when liberated in the pasture they 
immediately went to grazing, having had no water or food since 
