262 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



apparent or gross harmful effects, altliougli tlie tissues whicli they have 

 invaded are ordinarily susceptible to the infectious characteristics of 

 such organisms, one might ask this question : Is Bad. abortus able to 

 penetrate into the deeper layers of the uterine mucous membrane and 

 to remain there as the cause of a latent infection? 



Hoping to throw some light on this question and incidentally fur- 

 ther to substantiate the findings of other workers on the persistence 

 of Bad. abortus in the genital tract, uteri from six cows, which 

 were killed on accounti of failure to conceive, were examined in 

 collaboration with Dr. E. T. Hallman of the Department of Animal 

 Pathology. All these cows had aborted and came from herds badly 

 infected with abortion disease. The complete history of each case 

 will be included in a paper to be published by Dr. Hallman on the 

 pathological side of this work. He (7) has already published a pre- 

 liminary report on the pathology of the reproductive organs in sterility. 

 In this paper there are given descriptions of the macroscopic and mi- 

 croscopic appearances of the diseased uterine mucosa and mention is 

 made of the bacteria associated with the processes. In the present 

 work the writer has attempted to make cultures from such portions of 

 the uterine wall as are described by Dr. Hallman as being diseased. 



The number of cases examined is rather small due to the fact that 

 the proper kind of material for such work is very scarce. In order that 

 the findings should .carry the most possible weight the cows should 

 come from herds where abortion is prevalent; they should have aborted 

 and preferably developed more or less complications. Subsequent to 

 abortion they should be non-pregnant at the time of slaughtering and 

 abortion should have occurred not less than two months previously. 

 Furthermore, the uteri should reach the laboratory in the very best 

 of condition in order to facilitate the examination and to ensure the 

 most accurate results. From this one can readily understand that no 

 great amount of material would be available. 



GENERAL TECHNIC. 



The uteri were examined immediately upon being brought to the 

 laboratory in all but two cases which were brought in so late that they 

 had to be placed in the ice box over night. The serous surface of the 

 uterine horns was seared with a hot iron and an incision made through 

 the horns with a sterile scalpel. Through these incisions swabs were 

 taken from the mucous membranes of the horns. In case any pus or 

 other exudate was present samples of such material were obtained by 

 means of sterile swabs or pipettes. The horns were then opened and the 

 surface of the mucous membrane seared as before. Pieces of the seared 

 mucous membrane of the size of a pea or small bean were now cut out 

 from different places showing signs of pathological changes and ground 

 in a mortar with sterile sand and physiological salt solution. As al- 

 ready noted an attempt was made to select areas showing the slight 

 pathological processes often found in these cases of sterility (7). 



Broth and agar tubes and plates were now inoculated with the 

 various samples, the cultures divided into two batches and placed in the 

 incubator at 37°C., one-half of the cultures being inoculated under 

 aerobic and the other half under anaerobic conditions. The cultures 



