as to protrude externally and receive perhaps fatal injuries.
In case of rupture before calving, that act should be completed as rapidly
and carefully as possible, the fetal membranes removed, and the contraction
of the womb sought by dashing cold water on the loins, the right flank, or
the vulva. If the calf has escaped into the abdomen and can not be brought
through the natural channels, it may be permissible to fix the animal and
extract it through the side, as in the Caesarian section. If the laceration
has happened during eversion of the womb it is usually less redoubtable,
because the womb contracts more readily under the stimulus of the cold air
so recently applied. In case the abdomen has been laid open it is well to
stitch up the rent, but if not, it should be left to nature, and will often
heal satisfactorily, the cow even breeding successfully in after years.

Rupture of the floor of the vagina has been already referred to as allowing
the protrusion of the bladder. Laceration of the roof of this passage is
also met with as the result of deviations of the hind limbs and feet upward
when the calf lies on its back. In some such cases the opening passes clear
into the rectum, or the foot may even pass out through the anus, so that
that opening and the vulva are laid open into one.

Simple, superficial lacerations of the vaginal walls are not usually
serious, and heal readily unless septic inflammation sets in, in which case
the cow is liable to perish. They may be treated with soothing and
antiseptic injections, such as carbolic acid, 1 dram; water, 1 quart.

The more serious injuries depend on the complications. Rupture of the
anterior part of the canal, close to the mouth of the womb, may lead to the
introduction of infecting germs into the cavity of the abdomen, or
protrusion of the bowel through the rent and externally, either of which
may prove fatal. If both these conditions are escaped the wound may heal
spontaneously. Rupture into the bladder may lead to nothing worse than a
constant dribbling of the urine from the vulva. The cow should be fattened
if she survives. Rupture into the rectum will entail a constant escape of
feces through the vulva, and, of course, the same condition exists when the
anus as well has been torn open. I have successfully sewed up an opening of
this kind in the mare, but in the case of the cow it is probably better to
prepare her for the butcher.

CLOTS OF BLOOD IN THE WALLS O