e-leg in order to pass it through the third ring; then it must
be passed around against the outer angle of the left hip, and fastened
after having been drawn tightly to the posterior ring, by a simple
bow-knot.

The cow being thus firmly fixed to the wall, a cord is fastened by a
slip-noose around her hocks, to keep them together in such a manner that
she cannot kick the operator, the free end of the cord and the tail
being held by an assistant. The cow thus secured cannot, during the
operation, move forward, nor lie down, and the operator has all the ease
desirable, and is protected from accident.

The operator next--placed opposite to the animal's left flank, with his
back turned a little toward the head of the animal--cuts off the hair
which covers the hide in the middle of the flanks, at an equal distance
between the back and hip, for the space of thirteen or fourteen
centimetres in circumference (the French _centimetre_ is rather more
than thirty-nine one hundredths of an inch); a convex bistoury is
placed, opened, between his teeth, the edge out, the joints to the left;
then, with both hands, he seizes the hide in the middle of the flank,
and forms of it a wrinkle of the requisite elevation, running lengthwise
of the body. The assistant seizes with his right hand the right side of
this wrinkle; the operator takes the bistoury and cuts the wrinkle, at
one stroke, through the middle; the wrinkle having been suffered to go
down, a separation of the hide is presented, of sufficient length to
admit the introduction of the hand; the edges of the hide are separated
with the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand, and in like manner the
abdominal muscles are cut through, for the distance of a centimetre from
the lower extremity of the incision made in the hide,--the _iliac_
slightly obliquely, and the _lumbar_ across; a puncture of the
peritoneum, at the upper extremity of the wound, is then made with the
straight bistoury; the buttoned bistoury is then introduced, and moved
obliquely from above to the lower part, up to the termination of the
incision made in the abdominal muscles.

The flank being opened, the right hand is introduced into the abdomen,
and directed along the right side of the cavity of the pelvis, behind
the paunch, and underneath the rectum, to the matrix; after the position
of these viscera is ascertained, the organs of reproduction, or ovaries,
are searched for, which are at the extremity of the matr