ng outward._--In this case not
only are the knees somewhat bent in a curve, but the calf has a position as
if it rested on its breastbone, while the legs were drawn apart and
directed to the right and left. The shoulder blades being drawn outward
from the chest and the elbows turned out, the muscles extending from the
trunk to the limb are unduly stretched and keep the knees bent and the feet
directed outward so as to press on the sides of the passages. They become
retarded in their progress as compared with the more rapidly advancing
head, and may bruise or even lacerate the walls of the vagina. It would
seem easy to rectify this by extending the legs, but the already tense and
overstretched muscles operate against extension in the present position,
and it is not easy to rotate the limbs so as to apply the shoulder flat
against the side of the chest. Under these circumstances a repeller (Pl.
XX, fig. 7) may be planted in the breast and the body of the calf pushed
backward into the womb, when the limbs will extend easily under traction
and the presentation becomes at once natural.

_Fore limbs curved at knee--Flexor tendons shortening._--In this case the
feet will press against the floor of the pelvis though the limb has no
outward direction, and the shoulder meanwhile presses against the roof of
the same passage. Unless the knees can be sufficiently straightened by
force a knife must be used to cut across the cords behind the knee, when
the limbs may be straightened sufficiently.

_Fore limbs flexed at knee--Flexor tendons unshortened._--This is mostly
seen in cases in which the body of the calf is in the proper position, its
back being turned up toward the back of the dam, and in cows with a
drooping abdomen. The feet have been supposed to catch beneath the brim of
the pelvis, and being retarded while the head advances into the passages,
they get bent at the knee and the nose and knees present. (Pl. XVI, fig.
2.) The calf, however, is not an inanimate body advanced by the mere
contraction of the womb, but it moves its limbs freely under the stimulus
of the unwonted compression, and in moving the feet as they are advanced
they slip down over the pelvic brim and finding no other firm support they
bend back until, under the impulsion, they can no longer straighten out
again. The knees, therefore, advance with the neck and head, but the feet
remain bent back. The result is that the upper part of the limb is also
flexed, a