EMBRYOTOMY.
For the following method of performing the operation we are indebted to Mr. Youatt's work. The details appeared in the London Veterinarian of 1831, and will illustrate the operation. M. Thibeaudeau, the operating surgeon, says, "I was consulted respecting a Breton cow twenty years old, which was unable to calve. I soon discovered the obstacle to the delivery. The fore limbs presented themselves as usual; but the head and neck were turned backwards, and fixed on the left side of the chest, while the fœtus lay on its right side, on the inferior portion of the uterus." M. Thibeaudeau then relates the ineffectual efforts he made to bring the fœtus into a favorable position, and he at length found that his only resource to save the mother was, to cut in pieces the calf, which was now dead. "I amputated the left shoulder of the foetus," says he, "in spite of the difficulties which the position of the head and neck presented. Having withdrawn the limb, I made an incision through all the cartilages of the ribs, and laid open the chest through its whole extent, by which means I was enabled to extract all the thoracic viscera. Thus having lessened the size of the calf, I was enabled, by pulling at the remaining fore leg, to extract the fœtus without much resistance, although the head and neck were still bent upon the chest. The afterbirth was removed immediately afterwards." This shows the importance of making an early examination, to determine the precise position of the foetus; for if the head had been discovered in such position in the early stage of labor, it might have been brought forward, and thus prevented the butchery.