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—