F THE VAGINA.

During calving the vagina may be bruised so as to cause escape of blood
beneath the mucous membrane and its coagulation into large bulging clots.
The vulva may appear swollen, and on separating its lips the mucous
membrane of the vagina is seen to be raised into irregular rounded
swellings of a dark-blue or black color, and which pit on pressure of the
finger. If the accumulation of blood is not extensive it may be reabsorbed,
but if abundant it may lead to irritation and dangerous inflammation, and
should be incised with a lancet and the clots cleared out. The wounds may
then be sponged twice a day with a lotion made with 1 dram sulphate of
zinc, 1 dram carbolic acid, and 1 quart water.

RETAINED AFTERBIRTH.

The cow, of all our domestic animals, is especially subject to this
accident. This may be partly accounted for by the firm connections
established through the fifty to one hundred cotyledons (Pl. XIII, fig. 2)
in which the fetal membranes dovetail with the follicles of the womb. It is
also most liable to occur after abortion, in which preparation has not been
made by fatty degeneration for the severance of these close connections. In
the occurrence of inflammation, causing the formation of new tissue between
the membranes and the womb, we find the occasion of unnaturally firm
adhesions which prevent the spontaneous detachment of the membranes. Again,
in low conditions of health and an imperfect power of contraction we find a
potent cause of retention, the general debility showing particularly in the
indisposition of the womb to contract, after calving, with sufficient
energy to expel the afterbirth. Hence we find the condition common with
insufficient or innutritious feed, and in years or localities in which the
fodder has suffered from weather. Ergoted, smutty, or musty fodder (Pl. V),
by causing abortion, is a frequent cause of retention. Old cows are more
subject than young ones, probably because of diminishing vigor. A temporary
retention is sometimes owing to a too rapid closure of the neck of the womb
after calving, causing strangulation and imprisonment of the membranes.
Conditions favoring this are the drinking of cold (iced) water, the eating
of cold feed (frosted roots), and (through sympathy between udder and womb)
a too prompt sucking by the calf or milking by the attendant.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms of retention of the afterbirth are usually only
too evident, as the membranes hang