_Symptoms._--The symptoms are those of pregnancy, which may be suddenly complicated by inflammation (peritonitis), owing to rupture of the sac containing the fetus; or at full term signs of calving appear, but no progress is made; an examination with the oiled hand in the vagina or rectum finds the womb empty and its mouth closed. Further examination will disclose the fetal sac attached in some part of the abdominal cavity and containing the more or less perfectly developed body of a calf. In the most hopeful cases the fetus perishes at an early stage of gestation, becomes inclosed in a fibrous sac, and is slowly absorbed, its soft parts becoming liquefied and removed and the bones remaining encysted. In some cases the bones have finally sloughed into the rectum or through an artificial opening in the side of the belly. _Treatment._--Little can be done in such cases except to quiet pain and excitement by anodynes (opium, chloral, etc.) and leave the rest to nature. A fistula discharging bones may be dilated and the bones extracted, the sac being then washed out with a solution of 10 grains bichlorid of mercury in a quart of water. In certain cases with a live calf a skillful operator may be justified in cutting into the abdomen and extracting the calf with its membranes, using the lotion just named as an antiseptic. PROLONGED RETENTION OF THE FETUS. Even when the fetus has developed within the womb it may fail to be delivered at the proper time; labor pains have quickly subsided and the cow resumed her usual health. In such cases the calf dies, and its soft parts are gradually liquefied and absorbed, while its bones remain for years in the womb inclosed in the remains of the fetal membranes. These may be expelled at any time through the natural channels, or they may remain indefinitely in the womb, not interfering with the general health, but preventing conception. If the true condition of things is recognized at the time of the subsidence of the labor pains, the mouth of the womb may be dilated by the fingers, by the insertion of sponge tents, or by a mechanical dilator (Pl. XX, fig. 6), the fetal membranes may be ruptured and the calf extracted. After the removal of the calf and its membranes the danger of putrid poisoning may be obviated by injecting the antiseptic solution advised in the paragraph above. ABORTION (SLINKING THE CALF). Technically, abortion is the term used for the expulsion of the offspring before it can live out of the womb. Its expulsion before the normal time, but after it is capable of an independent existence, is premature parturition. In the cow this may be after seven and one-half months of pregnancy. Earl Spencer failed to raise any calf born before the two hundred and forty-second day. Dairymen use the term abortion for the expulsion of the product of conception at any time before the completion of the full period of a normal pregnancy, and in this sense it will be used in this article.