For the following method of performing the operation we are indebted to
Mr. Youatt's work. The details appeared in the London Veterinarian of
1831, and will illustrate the operation. M. Thibeaudeau, the operating
surgeon, says, "I was consulted respecting a Breton cow twenty years
old, which was unable to calve. I soon discovered the obstacle to the
delivery. The fore limbs presented themselves as usual; but the head and
neck were turned backwards, and fixed on the left side of the chest,
while the foetus lay on its right side, on the inferior portion of the
uterus." M. Thibeaudeau then relates the ineffectual efforts he made to
bring the foetus into a favorable position, and he at length found
that his only resource to save the mother was, to cut in pieces the
calf, which was now dead. "I amputated the left shoulder of the foetus,"
says he, "in spite of the difficulties which the position of the head
and neck presented. Having withdrawn the limb, I made an incision
through all the cartilages of the ribs, and laid open the chest through
its whole extent, by which means I was enabled to extract all the
thoracic viscera. Thus having lessened the size of the calf, I was
enabled, by pulling at the remaining fore leg, to extract the foetus
without much resistance, although the head and neck were still bent upon
the chest. The afterbirth was removed immediately afterwards." This
shows the importance of making an early examination, to determine the
precise position of the foetus; for if the head had been discovered in
such position in the early stage of labor, it might have been brought
forward, and thus prevented the butchery.