If, however, the sheath seems to be in a manner filled with it, and the whole of it cannot be fairly exposed, humanity will require that the poor animal should be destroyed.

Castration is best performed in the dog by means of a ligature. An incision is made into the scrotum, the testicle turned out, and a tight ligature passed round the cord; after which the testicle is immediately removed.

The scrotum itself is subject to discase: there is enlargement of the bag generally, a very great redness of the integument, and the appearance of a superficial pimpled sore. Fomentation with warm water, and the application of the healing ointment (Recipe No. 5, p. 149), will usually effect a cure.

If this is neglected, that which, in the first place, was only inflammation of the integument, will spread to the testicle, and schirrous enlargement and cancer of it will be produced. Little hope of doing good can then be entertained, although in a few instances the friar's balsam and the healing ointment have effected a cure. iodine pills (Recipe No. 16, p. 176) will be worth trying, if the owner is determined that a cure shall be attempted. In most cases, however, the patient should be put out of his misery as speedily as possible.

The

Castration will not always succeed in schirrous enlargement and cancer of the testicle: the disease will spread up the cord, when that has begun to enlarge; and, in some cases, when there is no apparent hardening or thickening of the cord, the cancerous tendency will remain.

The fungous excrescences already described are sometimes found in the vagina of the bitch, and generally

DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS.

213

produced either by difficult parturition, or the forcible separation of the dog from her at the time of heat. If these growths can be got at, a cure may be attempted; but if they are beyond the reach of the scissors or the caustic, no good can be done. These fungous growths, either from ineffectual attempts to get rid of them, or in their natural progress, terminate in cancer of the vagina; and injuries either at parturition, or the period of œstrum, are sometimes productive of the same consequence. It will be useless to attempt to cure cancer in the vagina.-

CHAPTER XXXVII.

PARTURITION.

THE bitch goes with young nine weeks.

She rarely varies even one day. It is seldom before the fifth week that the belly begins to enlarge, or that the motions of the fœtus can be detected. A day or two before the expiration of her time of utero-gestation, she usually gets fidgety and uneasy, and selects her bed; and for some days before that the secretion of milk has commenced. If she has not been petted, and disposed to inflammation, and if the dog was not much larger than herself, there is little or no danger attending the act of parturition.

Petted bitches, however, frequently experience much difficulty in bringing forth their young, and manual assistance is then necessary. The precise time at which the connexion took place should be ascertained, and no attempt made to extract the fœtus, until some hours after the full expiration of the usual period of uterogestation, nor for the first six or eight hours after the labour has commenced should the bitch be worried by any attempts at examination or assistance.

When, however, it is deemed expedient to interfere,

the first thing that should be done is to examine whether any part of the fœtus has entered the pelvis; if it has not, she must be left undisturbed for a few hours longer. If it appears, after a second examination, that no progress has been made, a stimulant should be given; and the best stimulus to the womb, and that which has saved the lives of hundreds of these animals, is the Secale, cornutum, or ergot of rye.

RECIPE (No. 36).

Ergot of Rye Pills.

TAKE-Ergot of rye, a scruple; rub it down to a fine powder, and then add,

Powdered ginger, sixteen grains;

Simple syrup, a sufficient quantity:

Beat into a mass, and divide into five pills.

One of these should be given to a bitch of tolerable size every hour, and half a pill to a smaller animal. They will usually rouse the womb to more forcible contraction, and often recall the labour-pains after they had ceased.

As soon as the foetus is in the pelvic cavity, and a little portion of it presents from the external orifice, the finger, previously oiled, should be introduced into the vagina, by the side of the puppy, most especial care being taken that the young one is not forced back. The position of the fœtus will now be ascertained. If it is a natural presentation, the muzzle being foremost, the fœtus may be a little advanced, by gentle solicitation and working of the finger. The finger must then be carried as far up as possible, and one of the shoulders of the dog felt for, and the elbow being found, that fore

leg may be easily brought down. The other must be disposed of in the same manner, and then, by gentle but firm pulling, the whole fœtus will be extracted. It will never be prudent to use any force until the fore-legs are thus disposed of, for there will be hazard of breaking the puppy; and, that being done, the life of the mother is irrecoverably lost.

If the hinder legs present, there will be somewhat more difficulty. The puppy must be partly drawn, but more solicited, forward by the action of the fore-finger, in the manner I have described, until the chest is in the passage. The foetus then being firmly held, a finger must be introduced, and the shoulder, and the elbow, on one side, sought for as recommended before, and that fore-foot brought forward. The other must be managed in the same way, and then the head will give little

trouble.

Instruments should never be resorted to until the strength of the bitch is evidently exhausted, and the throes have ceased, and she can no longer assist the surgeon; then a hook resembling a button-hook, but with the extremity not curved round, must be taken, and, the fore-finger of the left hand having been introduced into the vagina, the hook is slid along it, completely guarded by it, and introduced into the mouth of the fœtus, in a case of natural presentation, and into the pelvic cavity if the presentation is not natural; and being gently, but somewhat firmly, pulled, while the forefinger of the left hand is still urging the fœtus forward, it may often be extracted.

Soothing and gentle treatment will avail more here than any force that could be used.

Inversion of the womb sometimes takes place, when