Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

394 CATTLE.
the process, when the usual measures have been adopted—when the
parts have been bruised and injured, and the animal has been fatigued
and worn out, and the foetus itself probably has not escaped injury,
such an operation can scarcely be defended on any principle of
science or humanity. The writer of this work has twice attempted
the operation, but in neither case did he save either the mother or
the calf ; nor is he aware of any English veterinarian who has succeeded.
There is an account of one successful case by M. Chretien,
but it is one only out of the several that he attempted, and he
attempted this, because, on examination, he found that there was a
hard tumor in the womb, which nearly half filled the cavity of the
pelvis, and forbade the possibility of delivery.
If a similar impossibility of delivery should occur in the practice of
the veterinary surgeon ; and equally justifying the experiment, the
operation mus.t be thus performed. The rumen must first ie punctured
at the flank, or some of the solution of the chloride of lime
introduced, in order to get rid of any gas which it contains, and thus
to bring the uterus better into view, and prevent as much as possible
that pressure on it, and on the intestines, which will usually cause a
troublesome and dangerous protrusion of them as soon as an incision
is made into the belly. The animal is then to be thrown on the left
the right "hind-leg, being detached from
side and properly secured ;
the hobbles, must be brought as far backwards as possible, and fixed
to some - post or firm object, so as to leave the right flank as much
exposed as it can be. Commencing about two inches before and a
little below the haunch-bone, an incision is now to be made through
the skin, six or seven inches long, in a direction from above downward,
and from behind forward, and this incision is afterwards to be
carried through the skin, and the muscular wall of the flank. A
bistoury being taken and two fingers introduced into the wound in
order to protect the intestines, the wound is to be lengthened five or
six inches more over the superior and middle part of the uterus.
At this moment, probably, a mass of small intestines may protrude
they must ' be put a little on one side, or supported by a cloth, and
the operator must quickly search for the fore-feet and head of the
foetus. An incision must be made through the uterus, of sufficient
length to extract the calf, which must be lifted from its bed, two
ligatures passed round the cord, the cord divided between them, and
the young one, if living, consigned to the care of a stander-by, to be
conveyed away and taken care of. The placenta is now to be quickly
yet gently detached, 'and taken away. The intestines are to be
returned to their natural situation, the divided edges of the uterus
brought together and retained by means of two or three sutures, the
effused blood sponged out from the abdomen, and the muscular
parietes likewise held together by sutures, and other sutures passed
through the integuments. Dry soft lint is then to be placed over the
;