DISCUSSION ON CATTLE DISEASES. 221 



Dr. Cresset. In-breeding is one of the prime causes of the spread 

 of tlie disease by heredity. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. M}' question is with cows bred with special ref- 

 erence to butter making qualities, not necessarily breeding in-and-in. 



Dr. Cresset. I don't know as there is any harm in that, unless 

 the animals you breed to might be infected. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. How about warm, close barns, such as we have 

 been lately in the habit of building? 



Dr. Cresset. Cold, damp sheds, dark underground stables and 

 ill-ventilated abodes all contribute to the production of this disease, 

 and especially the warm stables with a vitiated atmosphere. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. May the disease be as readily transmitted by 

 the male as by the female? 



Dr. Cresset. I think not. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. You would not fear to use a male unless there 

 were actual signs of the disease apparent? 



Dr. Cresset. I would not. There are some very nice questions, 

 however, on this point of breeding. There is a tendency in this dis- 

 eased substance to be deposited in the ovar3\ among our thorough- 

 bred cows, and those cows are constantl}' in heat, much oftener than 

 the usual times, and yet they will not breed under the best service 

 that can be procured, one or both ovaries have become affected and 

 that prevents the ova from being impregnated, so, happily, in that 

 case the disease is not transmissible. Yet, on the male side, we 

 have the same self-regulating provision, for if the disease is onl}' in 

 the lungs of the bull, it does not affect his potenc}' to beget stock, 

 and unless poor from the effects of this disease I should not fear the 

 result, but the organs of masculinit}' are not infrequentl}' involved in 

 the bull, and all such animals should be discarded. 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. It does not follow because the disease is in the 

 lung that it is all through the system ? 



Dr. Cresset. Not necessarily. 



Question. You would not be afraid to breed a cow to one of these 

 fourteen Orono bulls? 



Dr. Cresset. Not if they didn't show any palpable signs of the 

 disease. If 3'ou cannot see anything wrong in the bull, no matter if 

 he is the offspring of one of those cows — and there is an interesting 

 point about that. The disease came on within a jear, apparently, 

 and if a bull is two or three years old and was bred before the dis- 

 ease appeared, he is scot-free, of course, but if any of them were 



