388 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



charges of the cattle in which abortion has already taken 

 place, and which are taken up in the liquids of the stable, 

 and in the littering, these exhibiting their action upon the 

 vaginal mucous membrane by a reddening and tumefaction 

 which always precede the manifestation of the accident. If 

 these views be in any way correct, it is probable that the 

 remedy for the disease consists in purifying the stable and 

 disinfecting the cattle, which may be done by vaginal injec- 

 tions of very dilute carbolic acid, or of permanganate of pot- 

 ash, so as to destroy any infection germs that may have pen- 

 etrated therein. 3 2?,xxvi., October 26, 1871, 257. 



PREVENTING SOWS FEOM DEVOURING THEIR YOUNG. 



It is well known that sows not unfrequently attack and 

 devour their own young ; or, if prevented from this, will not 

 let down their milk, so that the young pigs necessarily die 

 for want of nourishment. When this state of things is not 

 caused by a diseased condition of the uterus, it is said that 

 the sow can be brought to terms by pouring a mixture of 

 ten to twenty grains of spirits of camphor, w T ith one to three 

 of tincture of opium, into the ear. The sow will immediate- 

 ly lie down on the side of the ear to which the application 

 was made, and remain quiet for several hours in this position 

 without interfering with her pigs, and, on recovery from the 

 stupor, will have lost her irritability in regard to them. The 

 experiment has been tried in Germany hundreds of times, ac- 

 cording to one of the agricultural journals, without any in- 

 jurious effects. It is also said that the eating of pigs by the 

 parent sow can be readily prevented by rubbing them all 

 over with brandy, and making the same application about 

 the nose of the sow herself. 10 (7, 3Iarch, 1872, 44. 



THE NUMBER OF EGGS FROM A HEN. 



A German naturalist answers the question how many eggs 

 a hen can possibly lay as follows : The ovary of a hen con- 

 tains about six hundred embryo eggs, of which, in the first 

 year, not more than twenty are matured. The second year 

 produces one hundred and twenty; the third, one hundred 

 and thirty-five ; the fourth, one hundred and fourteen ; and 

 in the following four years the number decreases by twenty 

 yearly. In the ninth year only ten eggs can be expected, 



