Page:The Hog.djvu/165

163 complicated operation, and could not be performed without great difficulty on so obstinate an animal. The easiest and perhaps the best way is not to return the protruded parts at all, but merely tie a ligature around them and leave them to slough off, which they will do in the course of a few days, without effusion of blood or further injury to the animal. No sow that has once suffered from protrusion of the womb should be allowed to breed again.

Mr. Ramsden, of Ripon, gives the following account of a case of difficult parturition:— "About the middle of August, 1840, I was called in and requested to assist a sow that was in labor, could not rise, and seemed to be in great suffering. I relieved her of one, gave her some gruel, and hoped that she would be able to effect the parturition of the remaining ones without aid.

"On my return she was perfectly senseless. The young pig was endeavoring to suck. The parturition had not in the least degree advanced. I pressed with my left hand over the diaphragm, which recalled in a slight degree the pains, and empounded my right hand gradually. I then drew out a second pig; it lay about four inches anterior to the pelvis. The stupor of the mother was a little removed, and at length I got the whole litter of ten pigs, and also the placental membrane. This was the first case of the kind that ever came under my notice."—The Veterinarian, vol. xiv.

Another and still more interesting case is given by Mr. Cartwright, veterinary surgeon:— "On the llth of July, 1839, I was requested to attend a sow, the property of a farmer near this town. The poor animal had been in labor six days. During the last three days she was not able to stand, nor had she taken any food, and her death was expected every hour. She was a very fat animal, and the owner informed me that she was about ten days past her time of pigging, and that he was confident the pigs were dead. I was of the same opinion; and, after a minute examination, felt confident that nothing short of the Cæsarean operation could save her; at the same time informing the owner that she might die in consequence of, or during, the operation.

"The operation was consented to; and I proceeded first to secure her legs, and to have them firmly extended their full length, and retained there by assistants. I next placed a bundle of straw underneath her, which gave the belly a round and prominent position, rendering it more tense and firm, and at the same time giving me considerable advantage in operating.

"My first proceeding was to clear away the hair in the direction of my intended incision, in which I, at the onset, had made up my mind to follow the theory taught in operative surgery, viz. always to make the incisions in the same direction as the muscular fibres,