about the fourth or
fifth month is a useful indication of pregnancy. So is a swollen and red
or bluish-red appearance of the vaginal mucous membrane.

From the seventh or eighth month onward the foal may be felt by the hand
(palm or knuckles) pressed into the abdomen in front of the left stifle.
The sudden push displaces the foal toward the opposite side of the womb,
and as it floats back its hard body is felt to strike against the hand.
If the pressure is maintained the movements of the live foal are felt,
and especially in the morning and after a drink of cold water or during
feeding. A drink of cold water will often stimulate the fetus to
movements that may be seen by the eye, but an excess of iced water may
prove injurious, even to the causing of abortion. Cold water dashed on
the belly has a similar effect on the fetus and is equally provocative
of abortion.

Examination of the uterus with the oiled hand introduced into the rectum
is still more satisfactory, and, if cautiously conducted, no more
dangerous. The rectum must be first emptied and then the hand carried
forward until it reaches the front edge of the pelvic bones below, and
pressed downward to ascertain the size and outline of the womb. In the
unimpregnated state the vagina and womb can be felt as a single rounded
tube, dividing in front to two smaller tubes (the horns of the womb). In
the pregnant mare not only the body of the womb is enlarged, but still
more so one of the horns (right or left), and on compression the latter
is found to contain a hard, nodular body, floating in a liquid, which in
the latter half of gestation may be stimulated by gentle pressure to
manifest spontaneous movements. By this method the presence of the fetus
may be determined as early as the third month. If the complete, natural
outline of the virgin womb can not be made out, careful examination
should always be made on the right and left side for the enlarged horn
and its living contents. Should there still be difficulty the mare
should be placed on an inclined plane, with her hind parts lowest, and
two assistants, standing on opposite sides of the body, should raise the
lower part of the abdomen by a sheet passed beneath it. Finally the ear
or stethoscope applied on the wall of the abdomen in front of the stifle
may detect the beating of the fetal heart (one hundred and twenty-five a
minute) and a blowing sound (the uterine sough), much less rapid and
corresponding to the