166 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY [ I, II

" Anasarca " (fluid beneath the skin). A half-Ayrshire-Sahiwal cow, Vida No. 170,
aged about six years in calf 7½ months to a Montgomery bull, Moti No. 368, which
died recently from uraemic poisoning, after her three previous normal calvings and
normal healthy calves, threw her still-born monster heifer calf on the morning of the
19th October, 1930, without any undue straining or exertion on the part of the
mother. From the size of the foetus as seen from Plates VII and VIII, one would
wonder how the process of expulsion was effected so easily without any external help.
The explanation is, that the connective tissue of the entire body of the foetus from
head to the croup was infiltrated with serum, and the young creature although in
appearance double the size of an ordinary calf and weighing 50 lbs. was quite
supple, and the rent in the spinial column facilitated the expulsion without any
external aid.

                              GENERAL APPEARANCE.

      The body of a wild boar with short legs, ears and tail, the head of a lioness,
enormously large, short face and hare lipped. There was a rent of 4 inches on the
back behind the withers.

      The post mortem revealed a large quantity of serosanguineous fluid in the
abdominal and thoracic cavities and similar fluid was found under the skin. The
spine appeared broken, having a gap of 4 inches, between the end of the cervical
and the beginning of dorsal regions and the spinal chord was found as if torn asunder
and hanging. The other organs were normal and perfectly developed.

      In India people believe that the appearance of monstrosities in domestic animals
is due to the influence of enraged gods, and they are regarded with fear or horror.
Some regard them as prodigies, or freaks of Nature, and describe them as marvels or
curiosities, but scientifically they are simple modifications, or irregularities in the
development of organs of the foetus in utero. The embryo of the domestic animals,
in arriving at its ultimate development, appears to pass through all the degrees of
organization which mark the different types in the zoological series. The embryo
has been submitted to some kind of alteration ' in utero ' and this has been produced
during the interval between conception and birth [L. S. JOSEPH].