SPECIAL REPORT ON DISEASES OF CATTLE TEXT

was thoroughly closed in and the cow secluded from the constant stream of visitors and the incessant noise, when at once the pains became strong and effective and the calf was soon born. COAGULATED BLOOD UNDER THE VAGINAL WALLS. This is common after calving, but sometimes occurs before, as the result of accidental injury. The mass may be recognized by its dark hue and the doughy sensation to the touch. It may be cut into and the mass turned out with the fingers, after which it should be washed frequently with an antiseptic lotion (carbolic acid 1 dram in 1 quart of water). CONSTRICTION OF A MEMBER BY THE NAVEL STRING. In early fetal life the winding of the navel string around a limb may cause the latter to be slowly cut off by absorption under the constricting cord. So at calving the cord wound round a presenting member may retard progress somewhat, and though the calf may still be born tardily by the unaided efforts of the mother, it is liable to come still-born, because the circulation in the cord is interrupted by compression before the offspring can reach the open air and commence to breathe. If, therefore, it is possible to anticipate and prevent this displacement and compression of the navel string it should be done, but if this is no longer possible, then the extraction of the calf should be effected as rapidly as possible, and if breathing is not at once attempted it should be started by artificial means. WATER IN THE HEAD OF THE CALF (HYDROCEPHALUS). This is an enormous distention of the cavity holding the brain, by reason of the accumulation of liquid in the internal cavities (ventricles) of the brain substance. The head back of the eyes rises into a great rounded ball (Pl. XIX, figs. 4 and 5), which proves an insuperable obstacle to parturition. The fore feet and nose being the parts presented, no progress can be made, and even if the feet are pulled upon the nose can not by any means be made to appear. The oiled hand introduced into the passages will feel the nose presenting between the fore limbs, and on passing the hand back over the face the hard rounded mass of the cranium is met with. A sharp-pointed knife or a cannula and trocar should be introduced in the palm of the hand and pushed into the center of the rounded mass so as to evacuate the water. The hand is now used to press together the hitherto distended but thin and fragile walls, and the calf may be delivered in the natural way. If the enlarged head is turned backward it must still be reached and punctured, after which it must be brought up into position and the calf delivered. If the hind feet present first, all may go well until the body and shoulders have passed out, when further progress is suddenly arrested by the great bulk of the head. If possible, the hand, armed with a knife or trocar, must be passed along the side of the shoulder or neck so as to reach and puncture the distended head. Failing in this, the body may be skinned up from the belly and cut in two at the shoulder or neck, after which the head can easily be reached and punctured. If in such case the fore limbs have been left in the womb, they may now be brought up into the passage, and when dragged upon the collapsed head will follow. If the distention is not sufficient to have rendered the bony walls of the cranium thin and fragile, so that they can be compressed with the hand after puncture, a special method may be necessary. A long incision should be made from behind forward in the median line of the cranium with an embryotomy knife (Pl. XXI, fig. 1) or with a long embryotome (Pl. XX, fig. 3). By this means the bones on the one side are completely separated from those on the other and may be made to overlap and perhaps to flatten down. If this fails they may be cut from the head all around the base of the rounded cranial swelling by means of a guarded chisel (Pl. XX, fig. 8) and mallet, after which there will be no difficulty in causing them to collapse. DROPSY OF THE ABDOMEN OF THE CALF (ASCITES). This is less frequent than hydrocephalus, but no less difficult to deal with. With an anterior presentation the fore limbs and head may come away easily enough, but no effort will advance the calf beyond the shoulders. The first thought should be dropsy of the belly, and the oiled hand introduced by the side of the chest will detect the soft and fluctuating yet tense sac of the abdomen. If there is space to allow of the introduction of an embryotomy knife, the abdomen may be freely cut with this, when the fluid will escape into the womb and parturition may proceed naturally. If this can not be effected, a long trocar and cannula may be passed between the first two ribs and straight on beneath the spine until it punctures the abdomen. (Pl. XVIII, fig. 2.) Then the trocar is to be withdrawn and the liquid will flow through the cannula and will be hastened by traction on the fore limbs. In the absence of the trocar and cannula, two or three of the first ribs may be cut from the breastbone, so that the hand may be introduced through the chest to puncture the diaphragm with an embryotomy knife and allow an escape of the water. In some slighter cases a tardy delivery may take place without puncture, the liquid bulging forward into the chest as the abdomen is compressed in the pelvic passages. With a posterior presentation the abdomen may be punctured more easily either in the flank or with a trocar and cannula through the anus. GENERAL DROPSY OF THE CALF. This occurs from watery blood or disease of some internal organ, like the liver or kidney, and is recognized by the general puffed-up and rounded condition of the body, which pits everywhere on pressure but without crackling. If not too extreme a case, the calf may be extracted after it has been very generally punctured over the body, but usually the only resort is to extract it in pieces. (See "Embryotomy," p. 202.) SWELLING OF THE CALF WITH GAS. This is usually the result of the death and decomposition of the fetus when extraction has been delayed for a day or more after the escape of the waters. It is impossible to extract it whole, owing to its large size and the dry state of the skin of the calf, the membranes, and the wall of the womb. These dry surfaces stick with such tenacity that no attempt at traction leads to any advance of the calf out of the womb or into the passages. When the fetus is advanced the adherent womb advances with it, and when the strain is relaxed both recede to where they were at first. The condition may be helped somewhat by the free injection of oil into the womb, but it remains impossible to extract the enormously bloated body, and the only resort is to cut it in pieces and extract it by degrees. (See "Embryotomy," p. 202.) RIGID CONTRACTIONS OF MUSCLES. In the development of the calf, as in after life, the muscles are subject to cramps, and in certain cases given groups of muscles remain unnaturally short, so that even the bones grow in a twisted and distorted way. In one case the head and neck are drawn round to one side and can not be straightened out, even the bones of the face and the nose being curved around to that side. In other cases the flexor muscles of the fore legs are so shortened that the knees are kept constantly bent and can not be extended by force. The bent neck may sometimes be sufficiently straightened for extraction by cutting across the muscles on the side to which it is turned, and the bent knees by cutting the cords on the back of the shank bones just below the knees. If this fails, there remains the resort of cutting off the distorted limbs or head. (See "Embryotomy," p. 202.) TUMORS OF THE CALF (INCLOSED OVUM). Tumors or new growths grow on the unborn calf as on the mature animal, and by increasing the diameter of the body render its progress through the passage of the pelvis impossible. In my experience with large, fleshy tumors of the abdomen, I have cut open the chest, removed the lungs and heart, cut through the diaphragm with the knife, and removed the tumor piecemeal by alternate tearing and cutting until the volume of the body was sufficiently reduced to pass through. Where this failed it would remain to cut off the anterior part of the body, removing as much of the chest as possible, and cutting freely through the diaphragm; then, pushing back the remainder of the body, the hind limbs may be seized and brought into the passages and the residue thus extracted. The tumor, unless very large, will get displaced backward so as not to prove an insuperable obstacle. In many cases the apparent tumor is a blighted ovum which has failed to develop, but has grafted itself on its more fortunate twin and from it has drawn its nourishment. These are usually sacs containing hair, skin, muscle, bone, or other natural tissues, and only exceptionally do they show the distinct outline of the animal. MONSTROSITY IN THE CALF. As a monstrous development in the calf may hinder calving, it is well to consider shortly the different directions in which these deviations from the natural form appear. Their origin and significance will be rendered clearer if we divide them according to the fault of development in individual cases. Monsters are such-- (1) From absence of parts--absence of head, limb, or other organ--arrested development. (2) From some organ being unnaturally small, as a dwarfed head, limb, trunk, etc.--arrested development. (3) From unnatural division of parts--cleft lips, palate, head, trunk, limbs, etc.--abnormal growth. (4) From the absence of natural divisions--absence of mouth, nose, eye, anus; the cloven foot of ox or pig becomes solid, like that of the horse, etc.--confluence of parts which are rightfully separate. (5) From the fusion of parts--both eyes replaced by central one, both nostrils merged into one central opening, etc.--confluence of parts. (6) From unnatural position or form of parts--curved nose, neck, back, limbs, etc.--lack of balance in the growth of muscles during development. (7) From excessive growth of one or more organs--enormous size of head, double penis, superfluous digits, etc.--redundancy of growth at given points. (8) From imperfect differentiation of the sexual organs--hermaphrodites (organs intermediate between male and female), male organs with certain feminine characters, female organs with certain well-marked male characters. (9) From the doubling of parts or of the entire body--double monsters, doubled heads, doubled bodies, extra limbs, etc.--redundant development. (Pl. XIX, figs. 1, 2, 3.) _Causes._--The causes of monstrosities are varied. Some, like extra digits, lack of horns, etc., run in families, which produce them with absolute certainty when bred in the direct line, although they were originally acquired peculiarities which have merely been fixed by long habit in successive generations. The earliest horse had five toes, and even the most recent fossil horse had three toes, of which the two lateral ones are still represented in the modern animal by the two splint bones. Yet if our horse develops an extra toe it is pronounced a monstrosity. A more genuine monstrosity is the solid-hoofed pig, in which two toes have been merged into one. Another of the same kind is the solid shank bone of the ox, which consists of two bones united into one, but which are still found apart in the early fetus. Though originally acquired peculiarities, they now breed as invariably as color or form. Other monstrosities seem to have begun in too close breeding, by which the powers of symmetrical development are impaired, just as the procreative power weakens under continuous breeding from the closest blood relations. A monstrosity consisting in the absence of an organ often depends on a simple lack of development, the result of disease or injury, as a young bone is permanently shortened by being broken across the soft part between the shaft and the end, the only part where increase in length can take place. As the result of the injury the soft, growing layer becomes prematurely hard and all increase in length at that end of the bone ceases. This will account for some cases of absence of eye, limb, or other organ. Sometimes a monstrosity is owing to the inclosure of one ovum in another while the latter is still but a soft mass of cells and can easily close around the first. Here each ovum has an independent life; they develop simultaneously, only the outer one having direct connection with the womb and being furnished with abundant nourishment advances most rapidly and perfectly, while the inclosed and starved ovum is dwarfed and imperfect often to the last degree. In many cases of excess of parts the extra part or member is manifestly derived from the same ovum, and even the same part of the ovum, being merely the effect of a redundancy and vagary of growth. Such cases include most instances of extra digits or other organs, and even of double monsters, as manifested by the fact that such extra organs grow from the normal identical organs. Hence the extra digit is attached to the normal digit, the extra head to the one neck, the extra tail to the croup, extra teeth to the existing teeth, and even two similarly formed bodies are attached by some point common to both, as the navels, breastbones, backs, etc. (Pl. XIX, figs. 1, 2, 3.) This shows that both have been derived from the same primitive layer of the embryo, which possessed the plastic power of building up a given structure or set of organs. An inclosed ovum, on the other hand, has no such identity or similarity of structure to the part with which it is connected, showing an evident primary independence of both life and the power of building tissues and organs. The power of determining extra growth along a given natural line is very highly developed in the early embryo and is equally manifest in the mature examples of some of the lower forms of animal life. Thus a newt will grow a new tail when that member has been cut off, and a starfish will develop as many new starfishes as the pieces made by cutting up the original one. This power of growth in the embryo and in the lower form of animals is comparable to the branching out again of a tree at the places from which branches have been lopped. The presence of this vegetablelike power of growth in the embryo accounts for most double monsters. The influence of disease in modifying growth in the early embryo, increasing, decreasing, distorting, etc., is well illustrated in the experiments of St. Hilaire and Valentine in varnishing, shaking, or otherwise disturbing the connections of eggs and thereby producing monstrosities. One can easily understand how inflammations and other causes of disturbed circulation in the womb, fetal membranes, or fetus would cause similar distortions and variations in the growing fetus. It is doubtless largely in the same way that certain mental disturbances of a very susceptible dam affect the appearance of the progeny. The monstrosities which seriously interfere with calving are mainly such as consist in extra members or head, which can not be admitted into the passages at the same time, where some organ of the body has attained extra size, where a blighted ovum has been inclosed in the body of a more perfect one, or where the body or limbs are so contracted or twisted that the calf must enter the passages doubled up. _Treatment._--Extraction is sometimes possible by straightening the distorted members by the force of traction; in other cases the muscles or tendons must be cut across on the side to which the body or limbs are bent to allow of such straightening. Thus, the muscles on the concave side of a wry neck or the cords behind the shank bones of a contracted limb may be cut to allow of these parts being brought into the passages, and there will still be wanting the methods demanded for bringing up missing limbs or head, for which see paragraphs below. In most cases of monstrosity by excess of overgrowth it becomes necessary to cut off the supernumerary or overdeveloped parts, and the same general principles must be followed as laid down in "Embryotomy" (p. 202). WRONG PRESENTATIONS OF THE CALF. The following is a list of abnormal presentations of the calf: Simultaneous presentation of twins. A { {Limbs curved at the knee. Flexor tendons shortened. n {Fore Limbs{Limb crossed over the back of the neck. t { {Limb bent back at the knee. e { {Limb bent back from the shoulder. r { i { {Head bent downward on the neck. o P { {Head and neck turned downward beneath the breast. r r {Head {Head turned to one side upon the side of the neck. e { {Head and neck turned back on the side of the chest and s { { abdomen. e { {Head turned upward and backward on the back. n { t { {Hind limbs rotated outward. Toes and stifles turned a { { outward. t {Hind Limbs{Hind limbs bent forward, their feet resting in the pelvis. i { o {Transverse{Back of the calf turned to the right or left side. n { s {Inverted {Back of the calf turned to the floor of the pelvis and { { udder. P P { o r { {Hind limb bent on itself at the hock. Hock and buttocks s e {Hind Limbs{ present. t s { {Hind limb bent at the hips. Buttocks present. e e { r n {Transverse{Back of calf turned to the right or left side. i t { o a {Inverted {Back of calf turned to the floor of the pelvis and udder. r t { i { o { n { {Head up toward the spine, croup {Position of calf vertical { toward udder. T { { {Head down toward udder, croup r {Back { { toward spine. u P {and { n r {loins { {Head toward the right side, k e {presented.{Position of calf transverse{ croup toward the left. s { { e { { {Head toward the left side, n { { { croup toward the right. t { { a { { t {Breast { {Head toward right side, croup i {and {Position of calf transverse{ toward left. o {abdomen { {Head toward left side, croup n {presented.{ { toward right. s { These include all general presentations, yet other subsidiary ones will at once occur to the attentive reader. Thus, in each anterior or posterior presentation, with the back of the calf turned downward or to one side, the case may be complicated by the bending back of one or more members as a whole or at the joint just above the shank bones (knee or hock). So also in such anterior presentation the head may be turned back. _Head and fore feet presented--Back turned to one side._--The calf has a greater diameter from above down (spine to breastbone) than it has from side to side, and the same is true of the passage of the pelvis of the cow, which measures, on an average, 8-7/10 inches from above downward and 7-9/10 inches from side to side. Hence the calf passes most easily with its back upward, and when turned with its back to one side calving is always tardy and may be difficult or impossible. The obvious remedy is to rotate the calf on its own axis until its spine turns toward the spine of the cow. The operation is not difficult if the body of the calf is not yet fixed in the passages. The presenting feet are twisted over each other in the direction desired, and this is continued until the head and spine have assumed their proper place. If the body is firmly engaged in the passages the skin of the whole engaged portion should be freely lubricated with lard, and the limbs