In considering the subject of prevention, it must never be forgotten that any disease of a distant organ which determines the passage from the blood into the urine of albumin or any other colloid (uncrystallizable) body is strongly provocative of calculus, and should, if possible, be corrected. Apart from cases from geological formation, faulty feeding, and other causes, the grand preventive of calculus is a long, summer's pasturage of succulent grasses, or in winter a diet of ensilage or other succulent feed.

The calculi formed in part of silica demand special notice. This agent is secreted in the urine in the form of silicate of potash and is thrown down as insoluble silica when a stronger acid displaces it by combining with the potash to its exclusion. In cases of siliceous calculi, accordingly, the appropriate chemical prevention is caustic potash, which being present in the free state would attract to itself any free acid and leave the silica in its soluble condition as silicate of potash.

STONE IN THE BLADDER (VESICAL CALCULUS, OR URETHRAL CALCULUS).

Stone in the bladder may be of any size, but in the ox does not usually exceed half an inch in diameter. There may, however, be a number of small calculi; indeed, they are sometimes so small and numerous as to form a small, pulpy magma by which the bladder is considerably distended.

Symptoms.—The symptoms of stone in the bladder may be absent until one of the masses escapes into the urethra, but when this occurs the escape of urine is prevented, or it is allowed to pass in drops or driblets only, and the effect of such obstruction becomes manifest. The point of obstruction is not always the same, but it is most frequently at the S-shaped curve of the penis, just above the testicles or scrotum. In cows and heifers the urethra is so short and becomes so widely dilated during the urination that the calculi easily escape in the flow of liquid and dangerous symptoms practically never appear.

Even in the male the signs of illness are at first very slight. A close observer may notice the cylinders of hard, earthy materials encircling the tufts of hair at the opening of the prepuce. It may further be observed that the stall remains dry and that the animal has not been seen to pass water when out of doors. The tail may at times be gently raised and contractions of the muscle (accelerator urinae) beneath the anus (Pl. IX, fig. 2) may take place in a rhythmical or pulsating manner. As a rule, however, no symptom is noticed for two days, only the animal is lacking in his usual spirits. By this time the constantly accumulating urine has distended the bladder beyond its power of resistance and a rupture occurs, allowing the urine to escape into the cavity of the abdomen. Then dullness increases; the animal lies down most of his time; he becomes stupid and sometimes drowsy, with reddish-brown congestion of the lining membrane of the eyelids; pressure on the abdomen causes pain, flinching, and perhaps groaning, and the lowest part of the belly fluctuates more and more as the escaping urine accumulates in greater and greater amount. If at this stage the oiled hand is introduced into the rectum (last gut), the animal flinches when pressure is made downward on the floor of the pelvis, and no round, distended bladder is felt. If the same examination is made prior to the rupture, the rounded, tense, elastic bladder is felt extending forward into the abdomen, containing one or two gallons of liquid. There may be uneasy shifting of the hind limbs and twisting of the tail, also frequent lying down and rising, but these symptoms are exceptional.

When the obstruction is low down between the thighs (at the S-shaped flexure), the line of the pulsating urethra from the anus downward may be felt distended with liquid, and though, by the hard swelling of the urethra, it is seldom easy to distinguish the exact seat of the stone, yet there is usually tenderness at the point of obstruction, and from this it may be accurately located.

Treatment.—The treatment of stone in the bladder or urethra consists in the removal of the stone by incision and the use of forceps. (Pl. XI, fig. 4.) When the stone has been arrested at the S-shaped flexure just above the scrotum, the patient being lean, the thickened tender part of the penis may be seized between the fingers and thumb of the left hand, while the calculus is exposed by a free incision with the knife held in the right. If there is no other obstruction between this point and the bladder, and if the latter has not yet ruptured, a flow of urine should take place from the opening. If there is no escape of liquid, a catheter or sound, one-fourth of an inch in diameter, must be passed up through the canal (urethra) until it is arrested by the next stone, on which a similar incision should then be made to effect its extraction. In case the stone has been arrested in the portion of the urethra which is in front of the arch of the hip bone and inside the pelvis, it can be reached only by making an opening into the urethra beneath the anus and over the arch of the hip bone, and from this orifice exploring the urethra with fine forceps to the neck of the bladder or until the stone has been reached and extracted. Owing to the small size of the canal (urethra) to be opened and the great thickness of erectile tissue to be cut through, the operation requires a very accurate knowledge of the parts, while the free flow of blood is blinding to the operator. A staff should always be passed up through the urethra from the lower wound, if such has been made, or, in case of its absence, through the whole length of the penis, that organ having been drawn out of its sheath until the S-shaped curve has been effaced and the course of the canal rendered straight. Upon the end of this staff the incision can be made with far more confidence and certainty. The operation can be undertaken only by a skilled veterinary anatomist, but the hints given above may be valuable in showing the stock owner when he is being properly served in such a case.

In outlying districts, where no skilled operator can be had, a transverse incision may be made with a clean, sharp knife through the root of the penis, just over the arch of the hip bone, when the urine will flow out in a full stream. The attendant bleeding may be ignored, or if profuse it may be checked by packing the wound firmly with cotton wool for several hours. The urine will continue to escape by the wound, and the ox should be fattened for the butcher.

The immediate relief is not to be looked upon as a permanent cure, as the calculi in the affected ox are usually numerous, and later attacks are therefore to be looked for. Hence it is desirable to fatten and kill such cases after a successful operation. If a breeding animal is too valuable to be killed, he should be subjected to preventive measures, as laid down under "Stone in the kidney," page 139.

It should be added that when the bladder is filled with a soft magma a catheter may be introduced through the whole length of the urethra to be used in pumping water into the bladder. This water is extracted through the same channel when it has been charged with the suspended solids by manipulations of the bladder with the oiled hand introduced through the rectum.

CALCULI, OR GRAVEL, IN THE PREPUCE, OR SHEATH.

This is usually a collection of gravel, or a soft, puttylike material which causes distinct swelling of the sheath and gives it a soft, doughy feeling when handled. It may be removed in part by the oiled fingers introduced into the cavity, assisted by manipulation from without, or a tube may be inserted until the end extends behind the collection and water pumped in until the whole mass has been evacuated. Should even this fail of success, the sheath may be slit open from its orifice back in the median line below until the offending matter can be reached and removed. In all such cases the interior of the sheath should be finally lubricated with sweet oil or vaseline. It is unnecessary to stitch up the wound made in the sheath. (See "Inflammation of the sheath," p. 155.)





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DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PLATE IX. Kidney and male generative and urinary organs.

Fig. 1. Kidney of the ox. (From Handbuch des Vergleichenden Anatomie des Haus Saeugethiere, vol. 7, 1890.) A, renal artery carrying blood into the kidney; V, renal vein carrying blood from the kidney back to the heart; H, ureter, the tube carrying the urine from kidney to bladder. It is formed by the union of a number of branches which begin as cups (calices), each inclosing the tip of a conical mass of tissue from which the urine excludes.

Fig. 2. Genital and urinary organs of the bull. (From Leisering, Mueller, and Ellenberger, Handbuch des Verg. Anat. des Haus Saeugethiere.) the serous membrane enveloping the testicles; 3, the right testicle, outer view; 3', left testicle, inner view; 4, epididymis, or the beginning of the excretory canal of the testicle; 4', globus major, or the head of the epididymis; 4'', globus minor, or the tail of the epididymis; 5, vas deferens, the duct through which the seminal fluid reaches the ejaculatory ducts; 5', pelvic dilation of the vas deferens; 6, vesicula seminalis. The vesiculae seminalis are two oval pouches, which, in addition to their own secretions, receive the semen conveyed by the seminal ducts and hold it in reserve until copulation; 7, membranous or intrapelvic portion of the urethral canal covered by Wilson's muscle; 8, part of the prostate gland, covered by Wilson's muscle; 9, Cowper's gland. This gland, like the prostate gland, secretes a fluid which is thrown into the urethal canal in abundance immediately before ejaculation; by this means the expulsion of the semen is facilitated; 10, ejaculator seminis, or accelerator urinae muscle; 11, penis; 11', cut portion of same; 12, cut suspensory ligaments of penis; 13, sheath, or prepuce laid open; 14, retractor muscles of sheath; 15, cremaster muscle cut at superior extremity; 16, duplicature of peritoneum; 17, ureters carrying urine from the kidneys to the bladder.

PLATE X. Microscopic anatomy of the kidney.

Fig. 1. In this figure the minute apparatus for the secretion, collection, and discharge of the urine into the pelvis of the kidney (see preceding plate) is shown. The course is as follows: The urine is secreted from the blood vessels in the little round bodies called glomeruli (12), and by the minute cells in the curved tubes (11, 9, 10, 8), and passes through the convoluted and straight tubes (7, 6) into the larger tube (1), and then out into the pelvis, thence through the ureters into the bladder. The fluid and salts dissolved in the urine are taken from the blood, and the minute blood vessels are therefore very abundant in the kidneys, as is shown by the branches and network on the left of the figure. The blood passes into the kidney in the artery (13), which then divides into branches which pass into the glomeruli (12) and also forms network around the secreting tubules (11, 9). The urine and salts pass from these vessels through the cells lining the tubules into the latter, and are discharged as described above. The blood is again collected in veins drawn black in the figure.

Fig. 2 illustrates the manner in which the blood is distributed in the glomerulus (f), and also to the secreting tubules (e).

Fig. 3 shows the relation between the blood vessel in the glomerulus (e) the tubule which conducts the urine therein secreted from the blood vessel; (c) represents a glomerulus from which the urinary tubule has been removed.

PLATE XI. Calculi of kidney and bladder.

Fig. 1. Calculus, or stone, from the kidney. These are in the pelvis or portion of the ureter receiving the urine. The prolongations are casts of the branches of the pelvis. See the plates of the kidney for further description.

Fig. 2. Calculus made up of oxalate of lime magnified 215 times.

Fig. 3. Phosphatic calculus containing a nucleus of uric acid, sawed through to show concentric layers.

Fig. 4. Straight forceps used in removing stones from the bladder.

Fig. 5. Casts of the minute tubules of the kidney found in the urine in various kinds of kidney disease. Highly magnified.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Encyklop. der Thierheilk., Vol. IV, p. 208.



DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS.

By JAMES LAW, F. R. C. V. S.,

Formerly Professor of Veterinary Science, etc., in Cornell University.

[Revised by Adolph Eichhorn, D. V. S.]

GENERAL DISCUSSION.

Diseases of the generative organs are practically confined to animals which are kept for reproduction and the dairy. The castration of the bull condemns these organs to inactivity and protects them from the many causes of injury attendant on the engorged blood vessels in the frequent periods of sexual excitement, on the exposure to mechanical violence, and on the exposure to infective inoculation. In three respects the castrated male is especially subject to disease: (1) To inflammation and tumefaction of the cut end of the cord that supported the testicle and of the loose connective tissue of the scrotum; (2) to inflammation of the sheath and penis from the accumulation of gravel in the former, from which the penis is not usually protruded in passing water; and (3) to bruising, abrasion, and inflammation of the sheath and penis during suspension in the stocks for the purpose of shoeing. Apart from these the ox is practically almost exempt from the inflammations and injuries of the genital organs. The same applies to the castrated heifer. Inflammation may occur in the broad ligament of the womb whence the ovary has been removed or infective inflammation in the abdominal cavity (peritonitis) in case the operation has been performed through the flank, as it usually is in the young heifer. Apart from these, the castrated heifer is practically immune from any trouble of the generative apparatus. Even the virgin heifer is little subject to such troubles, though she is not exempt from inflammations, and above all, from morbid growths in the ovaries which are well developed and functionally very active after the first year, or in precocious animals after the first few months of life. The breeding cow, on the other hand, is subjected to all the disturbances attendant on the gradual enlargement of the womb, the diversion of a large mass of blood to its walls, the constant drain of nutrient materials of all kinds for the nourishment of the fetus, the risks attendant and consequent on abortion and parturition, the dangers of infection from the bull, the risks of sympathetic disturbance in case of serious diseases of other organs, but preeminently of the urinary organs and the udder, and finally the sudden extreme derangements of the circulation and of the nervous functions which attend on the sudden revulsion of a great mass of blood from the walls of the contracting womb into the body at large immediately after calving.

In reviewing this class of diseases, therefore, we have to note, first, that they are almost exclusively restricted to breeding animals, and secondly that in keeping with the absolute difference of the organs in the male and female we find two essentially distinct lists of diseases affecting the two sexes.

EXCESS OF VENEREAL DESIRE (SATYRIASIS IN MALE, OR NYMPHOMANIA IN FEMALE).

This may occur in the male from too frequent sexual intercourse, or from injury and congestion of the base of the brain (vasodilator center in the medulla), or of the posterior end of the spinal cord, or it may be kept up by congestion or inflammation of the testicles or of the mucous membrane covering the penis. It may be manifested by a constant or frequent erection, by attempts at sexual connection, and sometimes by the discharge of semen without connection. In bad cases the feverishness and restlessness lead to loss of flesh, emaciation, and physical weakness.

It is, however, in the female especially that this morbid desire is most noticeable and injurious. It may be excited by the stimulating quality of the blood in cows fed to excess on highly nitrogenous feed, as the seeds of the bean, pea, vetch, and tare, and as wheat bran, middlings, cotton seed, gluten meal, etc., especially in the case of such as have no free exercise in the fields, and are subject to constant association with a vigorous young bull. A more frequent cause is the excitation or congestion of some part of the genital organs. Disease of the ovaries is preeminently the cause, and this may be by the formation of cysts (sacs containing liquid) or of solid tumors or degenerations, or, more commonly than all, the formation of tubercle. Indeed, in case of tuberculosis attacking the abdominal organs of cows, the ovaries or the serous membranes that support and cover them (the broad ligaments of the womb) are peculiarly subject to attack, and the animal has constant sexual excitement, incessantly riding or being ridden by other cattle, having no leisure to eat or chew the cud, but moving restlessly, wearing the flesh off its bones, and gradually wasting. In some localities these cows are known as "bullers," because they are nearly always disposed to take the bull, but they do not conceive, or, if they do, they are subject to early abortions. They are, therefore, useless alike for the dairy and for the feeder, unless the removal of the ovaries subdues the sexual excitement, when, in the absence of tuberculous disease elsewhere, they may be fattened for the butcher.

Among the other sources of irritation charged with causing nymphomania are tumors and cancers of the womb, rigid closure of the neck of the womb so that conception can not occur and the frequent services by the male which stimulate the unsatisfied appetite, inflammation, and a purulent discharge from the womb or vagina.

Treatment.—The treatment in each case will vary with the cause and is most satisfactory when that cause is a removable one. Overfeeding on richly nitrogenous feed can be stopped, exercise in the open field given, diseased ovaries may be removed (see "Castration," p. 299), catarrhs of the womb and passages overcome by antiseptic, astringent injections (see "Leucorrhea," p. 224), and tumors of the womb may often be detached and extracted, the mouth of that organ having been first dilated by sponge tents or otherwise. The rubber dilator (impregnator), sometimes helpful in the mare, is rarely available for the cow, owing to the different condition of the mouth of the womb.

DIMINUTION OR LOSS OF VENEREAL DESIRE (ANAPHRODISIA).

This occurs in either sex from low condition and ill health. Longstanding, chronic diseases of important internal organs, leading to emaciation and weakness, or a prolonged semistarvation in winter may be sufficient cause. It is, however, much more common as the result of degeneration or extensive and destructive disease of the secreting organs (testicles, ovaries) which elaborate the male and female sexual products, respectively. Such diseases are, therefore, a common cause of sterility in both sexes. The old bull, fat and lazy, becomes sluggish and unreliable in serving, and finally gets to be useless for breeding purposes. This is not attributable to his weight and clumsiness alone, but largely to the fatty degeneration of his testicles and their excretory ducts, which prevents the due formation and maturation of the semen. If he has been kept in extra high condition for exhibition in the show ring, this disqualification comes upon him sooner and becomes more irremediable.

Similarly the overfed, inactive cow, and above all the show cow, fails to come in heat at the usual times, shows little disposition to take the bull, and fails to conceive when served. Her trouble is the same in kind, namely, fatty degeneration of the ovaries and of their excretory ducts (Fallopian tubes), which prevents the formation or maturation of the ovum or, when it has formed, hinders its passage into the womb. Another common defect in such old, fat cows is a rigid closure of the mouth of the womb, which prevents conception, even if the ovum reaches the interior of that organ and even if the semen is discharged into the vagina.

Preventive.—The true preventive of such conditions is to be found in a sound hygiene. The breeding animal should be of adult age, neither overfed nor underfed, but well fed and moderately exercised; in other words, the most vigorous health should be sought, not only that a strong race may be propagated, but that the whole herd, or nearly so, may breed with certainty. Fleming gives 79 per cent as the general average of cows that are found to breed in one year. Here more than a fifth of the progeny is sacrificed and a fifth of the product of the dairy. With careful management the proportion of breeders should approach 100 per cent. The various local and general obstacles to conception should be carefully investigated and removed. The vigorous health which comes from a sufficiently liberal diet and abundant exercise should be solicited, and the comparative bloodlessness and weakness which advance with undue fattening should be sedulously avoided. In bull or cow which is becoming unduly fat and showing indications of sexual indifference, the treatment must be active. Turning out on a short pasture where it must work hard for a living will often suffice. The bull which can not be turned out to pasture may sometimes be utilized in the yoke or tread power, or he may be kept a part of his time in a field or paddock chained by the ring in his nose to a strong wire extending from one side of the lot to the other and attached securely to two trees or posts. The wire should be higher than the back of the bull, which will move frequently from end to end. If he is indisposed to take sufficient exercise in this way he may be safely driven. An instance of the value of the exercise in these incipient cases of fatty degeneration is often quoted. The cow Dodona, condemned as barren at Earl Spencer's, was sold cheap to Jonas Webb, who had her driven by a road a distance of 120 miles to his farm at Wilbraham, soon after which she became pregnant. In advanced cases, however, in which the fatty degeneration is complete, recovery is impossible.

In case of rigid closure of the mouth of the womb the only resort is dilatation. This is far more difficult and uncertain in the cow than in the mare. The neck of the womb is longer, is often tortuous in its course, and its walls so approximated to each other and so rigid that it may be all but impossible to follow it, and there is always danger of perforating its walls and opening into the cavity of the abdomen, or, short of that, of causing inflammation and a new, rigid, fibrous formation which on healing leaves matters worse than before. The opening must be carefully made with the finger, and when that has entered the womb further dilatation may be effected by inserting a sponge tent or by careful stretching with a mechanical dilator. (Pl. XX, fig. 6.)

STERILITY FROM OTHER CAUSES.

The questions as to whether a bull is a sure stock getter and whether a cow is a breeder are so important that it would be wrong to pass over other prominent causes of sterility. Breeding at too early an age is a common source of increasing weakness of constitution which has existed in certain breeds. Jerseys have especially been made the victims of this mistake, the object being to establish the highest milking powers in the smallest obtainable body which will demand the least material and outlay for its constant repair of waste. With success in this line there has been the counterbalancing disadvantage of impaired vigor, with too often lessened fertility as well as increased predisposition to disease. When the heifers of the race have for generation after generation been bred under a year old, the demand for the nourishment of the fetus is too great a drain on the immature animal, which accordingly remains small and stunted. As it fails to develop in size, so every organ fails to be nourished to perfection. Similarly with the immature bull put to too many cows; he fails to develop his full size, vigor, or stamina, and transfers his acquired weakness to his progeny. An increasing number of barren females and an increasing proclivity to abortions are the necessary results of both courses. When this early breeding has occurred accidentally it is well to dry up the dam just after calving, and to avoid having her served again until full grown.

Some highly fed and plethoric females seem to escape conception by the very intensity of the generative ardor. The frequent passage of urine, accompanied by contractions of the womb and vagina and a profuse secretion from their surfaces, leads to the expulsion of the semen after it has been lodged in the genital passages. This may be remedied somewhat by giving 1-1/2 pounds of Epsom salt a day or two before she comes in heat, and subjecting her at the same time to a spare diet. Should the excessive ardor of the cow not be controllable in this way, she may be shut up for a day or two, until the heat is passing off, when under the lessened excitement the semen is more likely to be retained.

The various diseases of the ovaries, their tubes, the womb, the testicles and their excretory ducts, as referred to under "Excess of venereal desire," are causes of barrenness. In this connection it may be said that the discharges consequent on calving are fatal to the vitality of semen introduced before these have ceased to flow; hence service too soon after calving, or that of a cow which has had the womb or genital passages injured so as to keep up a mucopurulent flow until the animal comes in heat, is liable to fail of conception. Any such discharge should be first arrested by repeated injections as for leucorrhea, after which the male may be admitted.

Feeding on a very saccharine diet, which greatly favors the deposition of fat, seems to have an even more direct effect in preventing conception during such regimen. Among other causes of barrenness are all those that favor abortion, ergoted grasses, smutty wheat or corn, laxative or diuretic drinking water, and any improper or musty feed that causes indigestions, colics, and diseases of the urinary organs, notably gravel; also savin, rue, cantharides, and all other irritants of the bowels or kidneys.

Hermaphrodites are barren, of course, as their sexual organs are not distinctively either male or female. The heifer born as a twin with a bull is usually hermaphrodite and barren, but the animals of either sex in which development of the organs is arrested before they are fully matured remain as in the male or female prior to puberty, and are barren. Bulls with both testicles retained within the abdomen may go through the form of serving a cow, but the service is unfruitful; the spermatozoa are not fully elaborated. So I have examined a heifer with a properly formed but very small womb and an extremely narrow vagina and vulva, the walls of which were very muscular, that could never be made to conceive. A post-mortem examination would probably have disclosed an imperfectly formed ovary incapable of bringing ova to maturity.

A bull and cow that have been too closely inbred in the same line for generations may prove sexually incompatible and unable to generate together, though both are abundantly prolific when coupled with animals of other strains.

Finally, a bull may prove unable to get stock, not from any lack of sexual development, but from disease of other organs (back, loins, hind limbs), which renders him unable to mount with the energy requisite to the perfect service.

CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE TESTICLES (ORCHITIS).

This visually results from blows or other direct injuries, but may be the result of excessive service or of the formation of some new growth (tumor) in the gland tissue. The bull moves stiffly, with straddling gait, and the right or left half of the scrotum in which the affected testicle lies is swollen, red, and tender, and the gland is drawn up within the sac and dropped again at frequent intervals. It may be treated by rest; by 1-1/2 pounds Epsom salt given in 4 quarts of water; by a restricted diet of some succulent feed; by continued fomentations with warm water by means of sponges or rags sustained by a sling passed around the loins and back between the hind legs. The pain may be allayed by smearing with a solution of opium or of extract of belladonna. Should a soft point appear, indicating the formation of matter, it may be opened with a sharp lancet and the wound treated daily with a solution of a teaspoonful of carbolic acid in a half pint of water. Usually, however, when the inflammation has proceeded to this extent, the gland will be ruined for purposes of procreation and must be cut out. (See "Castration," p. 299.)

INFLAMMATION OF THE SHEATH.

While this may occur in bulls from infection during copulation and from bruises, blows, and other mechanical injuries, the condition is more common in the ox in connection with the comparative inactivity of the parts. The sheath has a very small external opening, the mucous membrane of which is studded with sebaceous glands secreting a thick, unctuous matter of a strong, heavy odor. Behind this orifice is a distinct pouch, in which this unctuous matter is liable to accumulate when the penis is habitually drawn back. Moreover, the sheath has two muscles (protractors) which lengthen it, passing into it from the region of the navel, and two (retractors) that shorten it, passing into it from the lower surface of the pelvic bones above. (Pl. IX, fig. 2.) The protractors keep the sheath stretched, so that it habitually covers the penis, while the retractors shorten it up in the act of service, so that the penis can project to its full extent. In stud bulls the frequent protrusion of the erect and enlarged penis and the retraction and dilation of the opening of the sheath serve to empty the pouch and prevent any accumulation of sebaceous matter or urine. In the ox, on the other hand, the undeveloped and inactive penis is usually drawn back so as to leave the anterior preputial pouch empty, so that the sebaceous matter has space to accumulate and is never expelled by the active retraction of the sheath and protrusion of the erect penis in service. Again, the ox rarely protrudes the tip of the penis in urination, the urine is discharged into the preputial pouch and lodges and decomposes there, so that there is a great liability to the precipitation of its earthy salts in the form of gravel. The decomposing ammoniacal urine, the gritty crystals precipitated from it, and the fetid, rancid, sebaceous matter set up inflammation in the delicate mucous membrane lining the passage. The membrane is thickened, reddened, rendered friable, and ultimately ulcerated, and the now narrowed sheath is blocked by the increasing mass of sebaceous and urinous material and the decomposing mucus and pus. The penis can no longer be protruded, the urine escapes in a small stream through the narrowing sheath, and finally the outlet is completely blocked and the urine distends the back part of the sheath. This will fluctuate on being handled, and soon the unhealthy inflammation extends on each side of it, causing a thick, doughy, tender swelling under the belly and between the thighs. The next step in the morbid course is overdistention of the bladder, with the occurrence of colicky pains, looking at the flanks, uneasy movements of the hind limbs, raising or twisting of the tail, pulsatory contractions of the urethra under the anus, and finally a false appearance of relief, which is caused by rupture of the bladder. Before rupture takes place the distended bladder may press on the rectum and obstruct the passage of the bowel dejections. Two mistakes are therefore probable—first, that the bowels alone are to be relieved, and, second, that the trouble is obstruction of the urethra by a stone. Hence the need of examining the sheath and pushing the finger into its opening to see that there is no obstruction there, in all cases of retention of urine, overdistended bladder, or blocked rectum in the ox. The disease may be acute or chronic—the first by reason of acute, adhesive inflammation blocking the outlet, the second by gradual thickening and ulceration of the sheath and blocking by the sebaceous and calculous accretion.

Treatment.—The treatment of this affection depends on the stage. If recent and without instant danger of rupture of the bladder, the narrow opening of the sheath should be freely cut open in the median line below, and the sac emptied out with a finger or spoon, after which it should be thoroughly washed with tepid water. To make the cleansing more thorough a catheter or a small, rubber tube may be inserted well back into the sheath, and water may be forced through it from a syringe or a funnel inserted into the other end of the tube and considerably elevated. A fountain syringe, which should be in every house, answers admirably. The sheath may be daily washed out with tepid water, with a suds made with Castile soap, or with a weak solution of sulphate of zinc (one-half dram to a quart of water). If these attentions are impossible, most cases, after cleansing, will do well if merely driven through clean water up to the belly once a day.

In case the disease has progressed to absolute obstruction, with the bladder ready to rupture any moment, no time must be lost in opening into the urethra with a sharp knife over the bony arch under the anus, where the pulsations are seen in urinating. This incision is best made in the median line from above downward, but in the absence of a skillful operator a transverse incision with a sharp knife over the bone in the median line until the urine flows with a gush is better than to let the patient die. Considerable blood will be lost and the wound will heal tardily, but the ox will be preserved. Then the slitting and cleansing of the sheath can be done at leisure, as described above. If the bladder is ruptured, the case is hopeless.

INFLAMMATION OF THE SHEATH AND PENIS FROM BRUISING.

This also is an affection of work oxen, caused by the pressure and friction of the sling when the animals are held in stocks for shoeing. This crushing of both sheath and penis for half an hour or more leads to the development, some hours later, of a hard, hot, and painful swelling, extending from the scrotum as far as the opening of the sheath. Fever sets in, with dry muzzle, red eyes, hard, full, rapid pulse, accelerated breathing, and elevated temperature. The ox stands obstinately with his hind legs drawn apart and urine falling drop by drop from the sheath. Appetite and rumination are suspended. In twenty-four hours there may be indications of advancing gangrene (mortification), the swelling becomes cold, soft, and doughy; it may even crack slightly from the presence of gas; a reddish brown, fetid liquid oozes from the swelling, especially around the edges, and if the animal survives it is only with a great loss of substance of the sheath and penis.

Prevention.—The prevention of such an injury is easy. It is only necessary to see that the slings do not press upon the posterior part of the abdomen. They must be kept in front of the sheath.

Treatment.—Treatment, to be effective, must be prompt and judicious. Put around the patient a strap with soft pads in contact with the affected parts, constantly soaked in cold water for at least 24 hours. A pound or two of Epsom salt in 4 quarts of hot water should also be given. The second day the parts may be washed with 1 quart of witch-hazel (extract), 2 drams sugar of lead, and 1 ounce laudanum, or the cold-water irrigations may be continued if the active inflammation persists. In case the swelling continues hard and resistant, it may be pricked at the most prominent points to the depth of one-third of an inch with a lancet first dipped in dilute carbolic acid, and the whole surface should be washed frequently with some antiseptic solution.

When softening occurs in the center of a hard mass and fluctuation can be felt between two fingers pressed on different parts of such softening, it should be freely opened to let out the putrid pus, and the cavity should be syringed often with antiseptic solution.

In bad cases extensive sloughs of dead skin, of the whole wall of the sheath, and even of the penis, may take place, which will require careful antiseptic treatment. The soaking of the urine into the inflamed and softened tissue and the setting up of putrefactive action not only endanger great destruction of the tissues from putrid inflammation, but even threaten life itself from a general blood poisoning (septicemia). Every case should have skillful treatment to meet its various phases, but in the severe ones this is most urgently demanded.

INFLAMMATION OF THE URETHRA.

Like other males, the bull sometimes suffers from inflammation of the canal which conveys the urine through the penis, and a whitish mucopurulent discharge forms in consequence. It may have originated in gravel, the excitement of too frequent service, infection from a cow with leucorrhea, or from extension of inflammation from the sheath. Besides the oozing of the whitish liquid from the end of the penis and sheath, there is tenderness and pain when handled, and while there is no actual arrest of the urine, its flow is subject to frequent voluntary checks, as the scalding liquid irritates the tender surface.

Treatment.—If recognized before the discharge sets in, a dose of 1-1/2 pounds of Epsom salt and local, warm fomentations would be appropriate. After the onset of the whitish discharge a daily injection of a solution of 20 grains of permanganate of potassium in a pint of water into the penis will be beneficial.

WARTS AND PAPILLARY GROWTHS ON THE PENIS.

These are not frequent in bull or ox. They may interfere with the protrusion of the organ from its sheath or with service, and always give rise to a bad-smelling discharge.

Treatment.—They may be twisted off with a pair of small tweezers or cut off with a pair of scissors, and the seat burned with a pencil of lunar caustic. To get hold of the penis in the bull, bring him up to a cow. In the ox it will be necessary to push it out by manipulation through the sheath. In difficult cases the narrow opening of the sheath may be slit open.

WOUNDS OF THE PENIS.

The most common wounds are those sustained by blows of horns, sticks, etc. The blood vessels and sacs are ruptured to a greater or less extent and considerable swellings filled with coagulated blood and inflammatory products occur, leading to distortion of the organ, and it may be to the impossibility of protruding it.

Treatment.—A lotion of a dram of alum in a quart of water may be applied (injected into the sheath, if necessary), and a large sponge constantly irrigated by a stream of cold water may be kept applied by means of a surcingle to the outer side of the sheath. Incisions are rarely applicable to an organ of this kind, but in case of the existence of an extensive clot which is unlikely to be absorbed the lancet may be resorted to. If the injury leads to paralysis of the penis and hanging out of its sheath, it should be supported in a sling and astringents used freely until inflammation subsides. Then the restoration of power may be sought by a blister between the thighs, by the use of electricity, or by the careful use of nerve stimulants, such as strychnin, 1 grain twice daily.

ULCERS ON THE PENIS.

Sores on the penis of the bull may result from gravel or sebaceous masses in the sheath or from having served a cow having leucorrhea.

Treatment.—These may be treated by frequent injections into the sheath of a lotion made with 1 dram sugar of lead, 60 drops carbolic acid, and 1 quart water.

POLYPUS OF THE VAGINA OR UTERUS.

A polypus is a tumor growing from the mucous membrane, and often connected to it by a narrow neck. A definite cause can not always be assigned. If growing in the vagina, a polypus may project as a reddish, rounded tumor from the vulva, especially during the act of passing water. It can be distinguished from descent of the womb by the absence of the orifice of that cavity, which can be felt by the oiled hand beyond the tumor in the depth of the vagina. From a vaginal hernia caused by the protrusion of some abdominal organ enveloped by the relaxed wall of the vagina it may be distinguished by its persistence, its firm substance, and the impossibility of returning it into the abdomen by pressure. A hernia containing a portion of bowel gurgles when handled and can be completely effaced by pressure, the gut passing into the abdomen.

A polypus in the womb is less easily recognized. At the time of calving it may be felt through the open mouth of the womb and recognized by the educated touch (it must be carefully distinguished from the mushroom-formed cotyledons (Pl. XIII, fig. 2), to which in ruminants the fetal membranes are attached). At other times, unless the womb is opened in the effort to expel it, the polypus can be detected only by examining the womb with the oiled hand introduced through the rectum.

Polypi may cause a mucopurulent discharge or they may only be suspected when they prove an obstacle to parturition. The best way to remove them is to put the chain of an ecraseur around the neck, or pedicle, of the tumor and tear it through; or the narrow neck may be torn through by the emasculator, or in an emergency it may be twisted through by rotating the tumor on its axis. The removal of the tumor will allow calving to proceed; after this the sore may be treated by a daily injection of one-half dram sulphate of zinc, 1 dram carbolic acid, and 1 quart milk-warm water.

SIGNS OF PREGNANCY.

If a cow remains for three or four weeks after service without showing signs of heat (bulling), she is probably pregnant. There are very exceptional cases in which the well-fed cow will accept the bull weeks or months after actual conception, and others equally exceptional in which the well-thriven but unimpregnated female will refuse the male persistently, but these in no way invalidate the general rule.

The bull, no matter how vigorous or how ardent his sexual instinct, can not be made to pay any attention to a cow which is not in heat; hence indications of pregnancy can be had from both the male and female side. When she has conceived, the cow usually becomes more quiet and docile, and lays on flesh and fat more rapidly, especially during the first four months of gestation. The stimulus to digestion and nutrition created by the demands of the growing fetus, added to the quieter and more uneventful life, contributes to this result. Some feeders avail themselves of this disposition to prepare heifers and cows speedily for the butcher.

The enlargement of the abdomen, and its dropping so that it bulges below and to each side, while it falls in at the flank, between the outer angle of the hip bone and the last rib, are significant features which, though they may be caused by abdominal tumor or dropsy, are usually marks of pregnancy. From the same increasing weight of the abdomen the spine in the region of the loins sinks so that the bones of the croup seem to rise, especially back toward the root of the tail. In the early stages of pregnancy the udder develops slowly, and toward its completion quite rapidly. For a long time there is merely a sense of greater fullness when handled; the wrinkles in the skin become shallower and are effaced, and the teats are materially enlarged. Beginning a few weeks after conception, this tends to a steady development, though slight alternations in the sense of successive growth and shrinkage are not uncommon. In milking cows this does not hold, as the milk usually tends to a steady diminution and the udder shrinks slowly until near the completion of the period, when it undergoes its sudden, remarkable development, and yields at first a serous liquid and then the yellow colostrum, which coagulates when heated. As pregnancy advances the mucous membrane lining the vulva becomes swollen and of a darker, bluish-red hue; the mucous secretion also increases, becoming very abundant just before calving. When the feeding has not been altered or restricted, a steady diminution of the salts of lime excreted in the urine is an attendant on pregnancy, the lime being demanded for the growing body of the fetus.

After the fifth month the movements of the calf may often be observed in the right flank, nearly in front of the stifle, when the cow is drinking cold water. The sensation of cold on the side of the first stomach, which lies to the left and directly below the womb (Pl. I), stimulates the calf to active movements, which are detected on the sudden jerking outward of the abdominal wall as if from blows delivered from within. In a loose, pendent abdomen in the latter months of gestation the skin may often be seen pushed out at a sharp angle, irrespective of the period of drinking.

Another mode of examination through the flank is by touch. The palm of the hand is pressed strongly inward, about 8 inches in front of the stifle and a little below, several times in succession, and is then brought to rest with the pressure maintained. Presently there are felt distinct and characteristic movements of the fetus, which has been disturbed and roused to action. Another mode is to press the closed fist strongly inward in the same situation and hold it so, forming a deep indentation in the abdominal wall. Presently the knuckles are felt to be struck by a solid body, which is no other than the fetus that has been displaced to the left by the push of the hand, and now floats back in its liquid covering (amniotic fluid; see Pl. XII) downward and to the right.

Of all the modes of examination by touch, that done through the rectum gives the earliest satisfactory indications. The hand and arm, well oiled, are introduced, and the excrement having been removed if necessary, the palm of the hand is turned downward and the floor of the pelvis carefully examined. There will be felt in the median line the pear-shaped outline of the bladder, more or less full, rounded or tense, according to the quantity of urine it contains. Between this and the hand will be felt a soft, somewhat rounded tubular body, which divides in front into two smaller tubes or branches, extending to the right and left into the abdomen. This is the womb, which in its virgin, or unimpregnated, condition is of nearly uniform size from before backward, the main part or body being from 1-1/2 to 2 inches across, and the two anterior branches or horns being individually little over an inch wide. Immediately after conception the body and one of the horns begin to enlarge, the vacant horn remaining disproportionately small, and the enlargement will be most marked at one point, where a solid, rounded mass indicates the presence of the growing embryo. In case of twins, both horns are enlarged. At a more advanced stage, when the embryo begins to assume the form of the future animal, the rounded form gives place to a more or less irregular nodular mass, while later still the head, limbs, and body of the fetus may be distinctly made out. The chief source of fallacy is found in the very pendent abdomen of certain cows, into which in advanced gestation the fetus has dropped so low that it can not be felt by the hand in the rectum. The absence of the distinct outline of the vacant womb, however, and the clear indications obtained on external examination through the right flank will serve to prevent any mistake. The fetus may still be felt through the rectum if the abdomen is raised by a sheet passed from side to side beneath it.

Still another sign is the beating of the fetal heart, which may be heard in the latter half of pregnancy when the ear is pressed on the flank in front of the right stifle or from that downward to the udder. The beats, which are best heard in the absence of rumbling, are about 120 a minute and easily distinguished from any bowel sounds by their perfect regularity.

DURATION OF PREGNANCY.

From extended statistics it is found that the average duration of pregnancy in the cow is 285 days. A calf born at the two hundred and fortieth day may live, and Dietrichs reported a case of a calf born on the three hundred and thirty-fifth day, and another was reported by the American Journal of Medical Science as having been born on the three hundred and thirty-sixth day. It is the general observation that in most cases of prolonged pregnancies the offspring are males. Lord Spencer found a preponderance of males between the two hundred and ninetieth and the three hundredth days, but strangely enough all born after the three hundredth day under his observation were females. It may be reasonably inferred that while the prevailing tendency is to carry the males overtime, yet that the smaller and comparatively much less developed female sometimes fails to stimulate the womb to contraction until very far beyond the regular date.

HYGIENE OF THE PREGNANT COW.

Among domestic animals considerations of hygiene must be made subservient to profit, and therefore the first consideration is not to obtain the most robust health, but such a measure of vigor and stamina as is compatible with the most profitable utilization of the animal. The breeding cow must carry a calf every year, and this notwithstanding that she is at the same time suckling another large, growing calf. The dairy cow must breed every year, and at the same time must furnish a generous flow of milk from nine to eleven months yearly. If her health is lowered thereby or her life shortened, the question of profit must still hold sway, and, when disqualified, she must yield her place to another. There are exceptions, of course, but this rule generally holds.

There are certain points, however, in which the interests of hygiene may be considered. The pregnant cow should have exercise, and as regards both exercise and feed, nothing is better than a run on a smooth pasture. She should be withheld from all violent excitement, hunting with dogs, riding or being ridden by cows in heat, driving in herd rapidly through narrow gateways, causing to jump ditches or fences, subjecting to blows with the horns of pugnacious cattle, driving on icy or otherwise slippery ground, carrying in railroad cars, kicking by vicious attendants, and fastening or throwing down for operations. The diet should be good, not of a kind to fatten, but with a generous quantity of nitrogenous constituents which will favor both the yield of milk and the nourishment of the fetus. Aliments like wheat bran, middlings, etc., which are rich in lime and phosphates, can be used to advantage, as there is a constant drain of earthy salts for the building of the body of the calf, and thereby the danger of undue concentration of the urine is lessened. Hard, innutritious, and indigestible aliments, musty grain or hay, partially ripened rye grass, millet, Hungarian grass, vetches, peas, or maize are objectionable, as they are liable to cause indigestion or even paralysis; and corn or hay affected by smut or ergot, or that has been spoiled by wet, overripened, and rendered fibrous and innutritious, is equally objectionable. In the main the feed should be laxative, as costiveness and straining are liable to cause abortion. Roots and green feed that have been frosted are objectionable, as being liable to cause indigestion, though in their fresh condition most wholesome and desirable. Ice-cold water should be avoided, as calculated to check the flow of milk, to derange digestion, and to cause abortion. A good temperature for the drink of the dairy cow is 55 deg. F.

In the case of plethoric and heavy-milking cows of mature age and in the prime of life, the hitherto liberal diet must be changed at the last week for the scantiest possible fare, and the bowels must be kept open by laxatives, if need be, if the owner would avoid milk fever. Her stall should not incline downward from shoulder to croup, lest the pressure of the abdominal organs should produce protrusion or abortion. She should be kept aloof from all causes of acute diseases, and all existing diseases should be remedied speedily and with as little excitement of the abdominal organs as possible. Strong purgatives and diuretics are to be especially avoided, unless it is in the very last days of gestation in very plethoric cows.

PROTRUSION OF THE VAGINA (PROLAPSUS VAGINAE).

During pregnancy this is common from chronic relaxation of the vaginal walls and from lying in stalls that are lower behind than in front. The protrusion is of a rounded form and smooth, and if it embraces both sides of the canal it is double, with a passage between. It may sometimes be remedied by raising the hind part of the stall higher than the front part. This failing, a truss may be applied as for eversion of the womb, and worn until the period of calving approaches. (Pls. XXII, XXIII.)

HERNIA (BREACH) OF THE UTERUS.

In advanced pregnancy this occurs usually from a gradual relaxation and distention of the lower wall of the abdomen in the region of the udder, so that the latter is displaced downward, and in the sac above and in front of it may be felt the form and movements of the fetus. In other cases the womb escapes through a great laceration of the abdominal muscles to one side of the udder, and the hernial mass extends down to one side of that organ. However unsightly, this often allows the animal to complete its pregnancy naturally, and a broad, supporting bandage placed around the abdomen is about all that can be recommended. After calving it is best to fatten the cow.

CRAMPS OF THE HIND LIMBS.

The compression of the nerves by the womb and fetus passing through the pelvis sometimes causes cramp and inability to move the limb, but it disappears under friction and motion and is never seen after calving.

DROPSY OF THE HIND LIMBS AND BETWEEN THE THIGHS.

In the latter months of pregnancy the hind legs may swell beneath the hocks, or a soft swelling which pits on pressure with the finger appears from the vulva down between the thighs to the udder and in front. It is mainly ascribable to the pressure of the enlarged womb on the blood vessels, is not dangerous, and disappears after calving.

DROPSY OF THE MEMBRANES OF THE FETUS (DROPSY OF THE WOMB).

The unimpregnated womb may be filled with a dropsical fluid, but the pregnant womb is more liable to become overdistended by an excess of fluid in the inner water bag in which the fetus floats. (Pl. XII.) From an unhealthy state of this membrane or of blood of the fetus (water blood) this liquid may go on accumulating until the cow seems almost as broad as she is long. If the trouble has not originated in the ill health of the cow, the result is still to draw on her system, overtax her strength, and derange her digestion, so that the result may prove fatal to both mother and offspring. On the other hand, I have known extreme cases that came to the natural term without help and produced a living calf, after which the dam did well. The natural resort is to draw off a portion of the fluid through a hollow needle passed through the neck of the womb or through its tense wall adjacent. This may be repeated several times, as demanded, to relieve the cow from the injurious distention.

PARALYSIS OF THE HIND PARTS.

In ill-fed, weak, unthrifty cows palsy of the hind limbs and tail may appear in the last weeks of pregnancy. The anus and rectum may participate in the palsy so far as to prevent defecation, and the rectum is more or less completely impacted. Exposure to wet and cold are often accessory causes, though the low condition, general weakness, and the pressure on the nerves going to the hind limbs are not to be forgotten. Something may be done for these cases by a warm, dry bed, an abundant diet fed warm, frictions with straw wisps or with a liniment of equal parts of oil of turpentine and sweet oil on the loins, croup, and limbs, by the daily use of ginger and gentian, by the cautious administration of strychnia (1 grain twice daily), and by sending a current of electricity daily from the loins through the various groups of muscles in the hind limbs. The case becomes increasingly hopeful after calving, though some days may still elapse before the animal can support herself upon her limbs.

EXTRAUTERINE GESTATION (FETUS DEVELOPING OUTSIDE THE WOMB).

These curious cases are rare and are usually divided into three types: (1) That in which the fetus is formed in or on the ovary (ovarian gestation); (2) that in which it is lodged in the Fallopian tube, or canal between the ovary and womb (tubal gestation); and (3) that in which it is lodged in the abdominal cavity and attached to one or more of its contents from which it draws its nourishment (abdominal gestation). Undoubted cases of the first and last varieties are recorded as occurring in the cow. The explanation of such cases is to be found in the fact that the actively moving sperm cells (spermatozoa) thrown into the womb have made their way through the Fallopian tubes to the ovary. If they met and impregnated an ovum in the tube, and if the consequent growth of that ovum prevented its descent and caused its imprisonment within the tube, it developed there, getting attached to and drawing nourishment from the mucous walls. Such product has its development arrested by compression by the undilatable tube, or, bursting through the walls of the tube, it escapes into the abdomen and perishes. If, on the contrary, the spermatozoa only meet and impregnate the ovum on or in the ovary, the development may take place in the substance of the ovary, from which the fetus draws its nourishment, or the impregnated ovum, escaping between the ovary and the open end of the tube, falls into the abdominal cavity and becomes adherent to and draws nourishment from some of the abdominal organs (womb, bowel, liver, stomach, etc.).

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.

Abortion in cows is either contagious or noncontagious. It does not follow that the contagium is the sole cause in every case in which it is present. We know that the organized germs (microbes) of contagion vary much in potency at different times, and that the animal system also varies in susceptibility to their attack. The germ may therefore be present in a herd without any manifest injury, its disease-producing power having for the time abated considerably, or the whole herd being in a condition of comparative insusceptibility. At other times the same germ may have become so virulent that almost all pregnant cows succumb to its force, or the herd may have been subjected to other causes of abortion which, though of themselves powerless to actually cause abortion, may yet so predispose the animals that even the weaker germ will operate with destructive effect. In dealing with this disease, therefore, it is the part of wisdom not to rest satisfied with the discovery and removal of one specific cause, but rather to try to find every existent cause and to obtain a remedy by correcting all the harmful conditions.

NONCONTAGIOUS ABORTION.

As abortion most frequently occurs at those three-week intervals at which the cow would have been in heat if nonpregnant, we may assume a predisposition at such times owing to a periodicity in the nervous system and functions. Poor condition, weakness, and a too watery state of the blood is often a predisposing cause. This in its turn may result from poor or insufficient feed, from the excessive drain upon the udder while bearing the calf, from the use of feed deficient in certain essential elements, like the nitrogenous constituents or albuminoids, from chronic, wasting diseases, from roundworms or tapeworms in the bowels, from flat-worms (flukes, trematodes) in the liver, from worms in the lungs, from dark, damp, unhealthful buildings, etc. In some such cases the nourishment is so deficient that the fetus dies in the womb and is expelled in consequence. Excessive loss of blood, attended as it usually is with shock, becomes a direct cause of abortion.

Acute inflammations of important organs are notorious causes of abortion, and in most contagious fevers (lung plague, rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease) it is a common result. Affections of the chest which prevent due aeration of the blood induce contractions of the womb, as shown experimentally by Brown-Sequard. Pregnant women suffocated in smoke aborted in many cases. (Retoul.)

Ergoted grasses have long been known as a cause of widespread abortion in cows. The ergot is familiar as the dark purple or black, hard, spurlike growths which protrude from the seeds of the grasses at the period of their ripening. (Pl. V.) It is especially common, in damp localities and cloudy seasons on meadows shaded by trees and protected against the free sweep of the winds. The same is to a large extent true of smut; hence, wet years have been often remarkable for the great prevalence of abortions. Abortions have greatly increased in New Zealand among cows since the introduction of rye grass, which is specially subject to ergot. As abortion is more prevalent in old dairying districts, the ergot may not be the sole cause in this instance.

The riding of one another by cows is attended by such severe muscular exertion, jars, jolts, mental excitement, and gravitation of the womb and abdominal organs backward that it may easily cause abortion in a predisposed animal.

Keeping in stalls that slope too much behind (more than 2 inches) acts in the same way, the compression from lying and the gravitation backward proving more than a predisposed cow can safely bear.

Deep gutters behind the stalls, into which one or both hind limbs slip unexpectedly, strain the loins and jar the body and womb most injuriously. Slippery stalls in which the flooring boards are laid longitudinally in place of transversely, and on which there is no device to give a firm foothold, are almost equally dangerous. Driving on icy ground, or through a narrow doorway where the abdomen is liable to be jammed, are other common causes. Aborting cows often fail to expel the afterbirth, and if this remains hanging in a putrid condition it is most injurious to pregnant cows in the near vicinity. So with retained afterbirth in other cows after calving. That some cows kept in filthy stables or with slaughterhouses near by may become inured to the odors and escape the evil results is no disproof of the injurious effects so often seen in such cases.

The excitement, jarring, and jolting of a railroad journey often cause abortion, especially as the cow nears the period of calving, and the terror or injury of railway or other accidents proves incomparably worse.

All irritant poisons cause abortions by the disorder and inflammation of the digestive organs, and if such agents act also on the kidneys or womb, the effect is materially enhanced. Powerful purgatives or diuretics should never be administered to the pregnant cow.

Among other causes of abortion must be named the death or the various illnesses of the fetus, which are about as numerous as those of the adult; the slipping of a young fetus through a loop in the navel string so as to tie a knot which will tighten later and interrupt the flow of blood with fatal effect, and the twisting of the navel string by the turning of the fetus until little or no blood can flow through the contorted cord. There is in addition a series of diseases of the mucous membrane of the womb, and of the fetal membranes (inflammation, effusion of blood, detachment of the membranes from the womb, fatty or other degenerations, etc.), which interfere with the supply of blood to the fetus or change its quality so that death is the natural result, followed by abortion.

Treatment.—Although the first symptoms of abortion have appeared, it does not follow that it will go on to completion. So long as the fetus has not perished, if the waters have not been discharged, nor the water bags presented, attempts should be made to check its progress. Every appreciable and removable cause should be done away with, the cow should be placed in a quiet stall alone, and agents given to check the excitement of the labor pains. Laudanum in doses of 1 ounce for a small cow or 2 ounces for a large one should be promptly administered, and repeated in three or four hours should the labor pains recur. This may be kept up for days or even weeks if necessary, though that is rarely required, as the trouble either subsides or abortion occurs. If the laudanum seems to lack permanency of action, use bromid of potassium, or, better, extract of Viburnum prunifolium (black haw), 40 grains, at intervals of two or three hours until five or six doses have been given.

CONTAGIOUS ABORTION.

Contagious abortion (also known as epizootic abortion, enzootic abortion, and slinking of calves) is a disease affecting chiefly cattle and to a lesser degree other domestic animals, and characterized by an inflammatory condition of the female reproductive organs, which results in the expulsion of the immature young.

History.—This disease has been known in England and continental Europe for many years, and descriptions of it are mentioned in the writings of Mascal, Lafoose, Skellet, Lawrence, St. Cyr, Zuendel, and Youatt. In the early part of the eighteenth century British veterinarians recognized its contagiousness, but it remained for Franck (1876), Lehnert (1878), and Braeuer (1880) to produce the disease in healthy, pregnant cows by the introduction of exudate and material from aborting animals. Nocard (1888) isolated from the exudate between the mucous membrane of the uterus and fetal membranes a micrococcus and a short bacillus which were found continually in contagious abortion, but he failed to reproduce the disease by inoculations of pure cultures of these organisms into healthy, pregnant animals. In 1897 Bang, assisted by Stribolt, published their findings regarding infectious abortion of cattle, in which they incriminated Bang's bacillus of abortion as the causative agent. With pure cultures of this bacillus they were able to produce the disease artificially and to recover the same organism from the experimental cases. Since that time many noted investigators, both in this country and in Europe, have confirmed these findings.

Cause.—The Bacterium abortus of Bang is now generally recognized as the causative agent of the disease of cattle. Formerly it was thought that abortion was due to injury, such as blows, horn thrusts, falls, etc., or the eating of spoiled feed and certain plants, and while this may be true in a limited number of cases, careful investigations have demonstrated these claims to be largely unfounded. It is now generally recognized that when abortion occurs in herds from time to time, it is safe to assume that the disorder is of an infectious nature and should be so treated.

Natural mode of infection.—This phase of the disease is of greatest importance for a clear understanding of the methods of prevention. Many investigators have demonstrated that the infection is transmitted through the digestive tract, through contaminated feed and water. The germs are taken up by the body from the intestines with the liquid nourishment, reach the blood, and are carried to the genital organs, where they find conditions best suited to their development. Some assert that calves are infected in this manner by suckling infected mothers, the germs being present in the milk, or the teats having been contaminated by coming in contact with infective discharges. It is claimed that infection contracted in this manner remains dormant in the body of the calf until pregnancy begins, and then the organism, finding conditions suitable for its development, produces the disease.

Abortion may occasionally be transmitted from cow to cow by direct contact. The discharges from diseased cows, swarming with the germs, soil the external genitals, tail, and hind quarters, and then a susceptible animal, by contact, gets the infective material upon the vulva, the infection traveling up the genital canal and directly infecting the uterus.

The belief long entertained that the female acquires the disease at the time of copulation as a result of transference of the infection from affected to healthy females on the genital organs of the bull has failed to receive the support of experimental evidence. The view that the disease is spread to any great degree in this way has been largely discredited. Cows of all ages are more or less susceptible, but young ones in first or second pregnancy most frequently abort. A second abortion is not unusual, and a third may occasionally occur, after which the cow usually becomes immune and thereafter carries her calf to maturity. Heifers from aborting mothers sometimes seem to be less susceptible than others.

Symptoms.—Contagious abortion is a very insidious disease, developing very slowly through several months of the gestation period, and resulting finally in the expulsion of the immature young, this act being simply an indication of the presence of the disease and not the disease itself. Because of this slow development and the fact that the health of the animal is not noticeably influenced, the presence of the disease may not be suspected until it has gained a firm foothold in the herd. The symptoms of approaching abortion are those preceding normal calving. In addition, there may be observed, a few days previous to abortion, a sticky, sometimes purulent, rusty, and odorless discharge. Abortion occurs most frequently from the third to the seventh month, according to the number of abortions, occurring early in first abortion, and later in each succeeding abortion until the calf is carried to full term and the mother has become immune. It happens frequently that calves are carried almost to full term, and are born alive, but are sickly, and soon die. Following abortion there is a dirty, yellowish-gray mucopurulent discharge which persists for two or more weeks. If abortion occurs early, the fetus is passed surrounded by its membranes, but if late in the period of pregnancy, the membranes are retained, decomposition sets in and blood poisoning, which may cause the death of the animal, or sterility may result.

Lesions.—The most characteristic change is found in the uterus where a dark-brown fluid, purulent or even gluey in consistency, and containing grayish-white flakes separates the material membranes from those of the fetus, preventing that intimate contact between the two which is so necessary for the interchange of fluids and gases by which the fetus is nourished and by which it obtains its oxygen. These being cut off, the fetus must of course die. The germs producing the disease are found in greatest numbers at this point. In addition there may be inflammatory changes, first in the walls of the uterus and then in the tissues of the fetus. These inflammatory changes seem most intense in the cotyledons and result in the destruction of the minute structure of those bodies, and they appear swollen, pale, and soft. The membrane of the uterus between the cotyledons also may show inflamed and necrotic patches.

Complications.—Serious results sometimes follow abortion, and this is particularly the case when there is retained afterbirth. The retained membranes decompose, the poisonous products of decomposition and the organisms of decomposition themselves are absorbed, blood poisoning results, and the animal dies. Sometimes, when the animal is able to resist the effects of this decomposition, the uterus becomes the seat of such severe changes that sterility results. The walls of that organ become thickened and hard, the lining membranes become eroded, and conception can not take place. At other times the ovaries, where the reproductive cells originate, become affected and lose their function. Abortion does not invariably follow infection, but the calf is carried to full term. In these cases, however, retained afterbirth is a common occurrence, even to the extent that frequent retention of afterbirth in a herd may be taken as an indication of the presence of the disease. Very often suppurative processes persist for a long time, preventing conception, or sterility may result without apparent cause. A sterile cow is valueless, of course, for any purpose except for beef. Such animals are a source of infection for the others and should not be allowed to remain in the herd.

Diagnosis.—The diagnosis of infectious abortion is made from the changes occurring in the fetal membranes and in the expelled fetus. This, however, is substantiated with certainty only by microscopic demonstration of the germ of abortion. The fact that repeated abortions are observed in a herd is also evidence of the presence of the disease. In consideration, however, of the fact that animals may be affected with the disease and disseminate the germs, even though they carry the fetus to full time, a diagnosis in such instances is only possible by laboratory methods. For this purpose the agglutination and also the complement-fixation tests are being used with splendid results, and by the aid of these biological tests it is possible to determine all infected animals in a herd. The tests are carried out with the serum from animals to be examined, only a teaspoonful of serum being necessary for the execution of both of these tests. It, however, has to be confined to laboratories which are properly equipped for such work.

Treatment and prevention.—It may be said in general that treatment is without avail and all efforts should be directed toward prevention. Various medicinal agents, such as carbolic acid administered subcutaneously and methylene blue fed in large quantities, have been recommended, but have failed to stand the tests of scientific investigation and practical use. Serums and vaccines have also been prepared and sold as cures and preventives, but the work is still considered in the experimental stage.

Bacterial vaccines are at present extensively used in the control of this disease, and while numerous reports indicate beneficial results from their administration, in other instances total failures have been recorded. It appears that the experiments in this line have not progressed sufficiently to justify definite conclusions.

The spread of the disease can be controlled to a great degree by the practice of sanitary measures directed toward the disinfection of premises and the isolation of animals at time of calving and aborting. For methods of disinfection of premises see page 363.

Make frequent observations of the animals of affected herds for symptoms of aborting, such as swelling of vulva or udder enlargement, and upon the discovery of an animal showing these symptoms place her immediately in a stall which is somewhat remote from healthy stock as a means of confining the products of abortion as much as possible should the act occur. If an animal aborts unexpectedly she should be removed to separate quarters and given proper attention as promptly as possible. The fetus, afterbirth, provided it has been expelled, and all litter that has been contaminated with them and uterine discharges should be gathered up and destroyed either by burning or burying. Clean and thoroughly disinfect the floor, gutters, and manger in the vicinity of the aborting animal.

Daily irrigations of the uterus with nonirritating antiseptic solutions, such as 0.5 per cent solution of cresol or compound solution of cresol, at body temperature have a tendency to prevent the multiplication of microorganisms in the uterus and in this way promote recovery. Douching of the uterus should be continued until the discharge ceases. In addition, the external genitals, root of the tail, escutcheon, etc., should be sponged daily with the antiseptic solution.

Aim to place all pregnant animals in disinfected individual pens or stalls a few days before they are expected to calve, and confine them to these quarters for three or four weeks following the delivery of the calf, or as long thereafter as uterine discharges are observed. Avoid carrying infection from the maternity stalls to other portions of stable, on shoes or otherwise. This may be prevented to some degree by the use of disinfectant solutions on shoes after the stalls have been entered or by wearing rubbers while in the maternity stalls, removing them after the isolated animals have been attended to. The isolation of cows at time of calving and the aborting animal is based upon the knowledge that the fetus, afterbirth, and uterine discharges of an affected animal at these times very frequently contain myriads of the abortion bacteria, and that unless these substances are confined and promptly destroyed an abundant opportunity is provided for the contamination of the food substances of the healthy animals and their contraction of the disease.

Refrain from breeding fresh cows for a period of six weeks to two months following calving. The aborting animal should be isolated for a period of six weeks to two months and under no consideration be permitted to mingle with the rest of the herd as long as uterine discharges are observed.

Douching of the external genitals of the bull, a practice formerly regarded as highly important for preventing the spread of the disease, is now recognized as being of doubtful value. The bull is protected from abortion infection to a great degree by permitting him to serve only such animals as have calved or aborted from six weeks to two months previously. Investigational work has indicated that when the bull is affected with the disease the organs of his generative system commonly involved are not reached by the antiseptic solutions. A more rational method for the prevention of the spread of the disease by the bull consists in keeping him in an inclosure separate from the females and in having all services take place on neutral ground.

Great care should be used in purchasing cattle, and cows not known to be free from the disease should be kept in separate quarters until this point is determined.

GRANULAR VENEREAL DISEASE (INFECTIOUS GRANULAR VAGINITIS).

The affection to which the foregoing names have been given is a chronic, mild, and apparently contagious disease of cattle, characterized by an inflammatory condition of the mucous membrane of the vagina and the development of nodules upon its surface.

This disease is very widely spread, but from an economic point of view it does not appear to have great significance. Williams, who investigated it, asserts that it is difficult to find a single herd in this country which is free of this disease. He considers it of great importance, claiming that granular vaginitis has a vital relation to abortion. This view, however, is not substantiated by other investigators, it being now generally accepted that the disease is only rarely responsible for abortion, and further, that it exerts no apparent ill effects on the health of the animal and that it has no effect on the milk yield.

Symptoms.—Natural infection may take place either by direct contact of animals or at the time of service. Most of the cows in the affected herd contract the disease, but the bulls are rarely or very mildly affected. The inflamed condition of the membranes of the vagina results in a catarrhal exudate, and this discharge, which soils the external genitals and the tail, and the uneasiness and sometimes the straining of the animal, are the first and most prominent symptoms observed. Upon examination, small, hard, grayish nodules can be seen and felt upon the inflamed membranes. This acute stage may last for three or four weeks, then it gradually subsides and assumes the chronic form, only to flare up again as the animal comes in heat.

These nodules are sometimes found on the membranes of the uterus, and some investigators have argued from this fact that it was responsible for abortion and sterility. Others, however, deny this and point out that the bacillus of abortion can be demonstrated in nearly every case. The importance of the disease is therefore in dispute and the decision must be left to future investigation.

Treatment.—The exaggerated importance which has been attached to this disease resulted in the exploitation of the most varied kinds of remedies for its treatment. It is true that with a protracted and laborious treatment it is possible to effect cures in from one to three months, but with our present knowledge of this disorder it is advisable to limit the treatment to animals which show an acute inflammatory condition of the vagina and vulva with a discharge as a result of the granular affection. The treatment should be local and confined to the application of antiseptic washes in the form of irrigations. For this purpose a 0.5 per cent solution of the compound solution of cresol or of Lugol's solution has been found satisfactory.

PARTURITION (CALVING).

SYMPTOMS OF CALVING.

In the cow the premonitions of calving are the enlargement of the udder, which becomes firm and resistant to the touch, with more or less swelling in front, and yields a serous, milky fluid; the enlargement and swelling of the vulva, which discharges an abundant, stringy mucus; the drooping of the belly, and the falling in of the muscles at each side of the root of the tail, so as to leave deep hollows. When this last symptom is seen, calving may be counted on in 24 hours or in 2 or 3 days. When the act is imminent, the cow becomes uneasy, moves restlessly, leaves off eating, in the field leaves the herd, lies down and rises again as if in pain, shifts upon her hind feet, moves the tail, and may bellow or moan. When labor pains come on the back is arched, the croup drooped, the belly is drawn up, and straining is more or less violent and continuous. Meanwhile blood may have appeared on the vulva and tail, and soon the clear water bags protrude between the lips of the vulva. They increase rapidly, hanging down toward the hocks, and the fore or hind feet can be detected within them. With the rupture of the bags and escape of the waters the womb contracts on the solid, angular body of the fetus and is at once stimulated to more violent contractions, so that the work proceeds with redoubled energy to the complete expulsion. This is why it is wrong to rupture the water bags if the presentation is normal, as they furnish a soft, uniform pressure for the preliminary dilation of the mouth of the womb and passages, in anticipation of the severe strain put upon them as the solid body of the calf passes.

The cow often calves standing, in which case the navel string is broken as the calf falls to the ground. If, however, she is recumbent, this cord is torn through as she rises. The afterpains come on 3 or 4 hours later and expel the membranes, which should never be left longer than 24 hours.