2 ounces laudanum. _Viburnum
prunifolium_ (black haw), 1 ounce, may be added, if necessary, and repeated
in three hours. The pains will usually subside.

In some instances the external parts are relaxed and duly prepared, but the
neck of the womb remains rigidly closed. In such case the solid extract of
belladonna should be smeared around the constricted opening and the animal
left quiet until it relaxes.

DISEASED INDURATION OF THE MOUTH OF THE WOMB.

From previous lacerations or other injuries the neck of the womb may have
become the seat of fibrous hardening and constriction, so as to prevent its
dilatation, when all other parts are fully prepared for calving. The
enlarged, flabby vulva, the sinking at each side of the rump, the full
udder, and drooping abdomen indicate the proper time for calving, but the
labor pains effect no progress in the dilatation of the mouth of the womb,
and the oiled hand introduced detects the rigid, hard, and, in some cases,
nodular feeling of the margins of the closed orifice which no application
of belladonna or other antispasmodic suffices to relax. Sponge tents may be
inserted or the mechanical dilator (Pl. XX, fig. 6) may be used if there is
opening enough to admit it, and if not, a narrow-bladed, probe-pointed
knife (Pl. XXIV, fig. 2) may be passed through the orifice and turned
upward, downward, and to each side, cutting to a depth not exceeding a
quarter of an inch in each case. This done, a finger may be inserted, then
two, three, and four, and finally all four fingers and thumb brought
together in the form of a cone and made to push in with rotary motion until
the whole hand can be introduced. After this the labor pains will induce
further dilation, and finally the presenting members of the calf will
complete the process.

TWISTING OF THE NECK OF THE WOMB.

This is not very uncommon in the cow, the length of the body of the womb
and the looseness of the broad ligaments that attach it to the walls of the
pelvis favoring the twisting. It is as if one were to take a long sack
rather loosely filled at the neck and turn over its closed end, so that its
twisting should occur in the neck. The twist may be one-quarter round, so
that the upper surface would come to look to one side, or it may be half
round, so that what was the upper surface becomes the lower. The relation
of the womb of the cow to the upper and right side of the paunch favors the
twisting. The paunch occupies th